More than meets the eye
by Jitt
Summary: Letting Luffy steer the Sunny wasn't the best idea Nami could agree with. Thanks to that, they are now forced to deal with a certain, red-headed consequence, which immediately starts to get on their nerves; especially those of a certain green-haired swordsman. Is that person really what it seems to be? Or is there more, than what just meets the eye? Will the history repeat itself?
1. 01: Unexpected encounter

_I do not own One Piece, just love to mess with the characters in my own way._

_Set shortly before emerging from the Fishman's Island, but before Punk Hazard._

_English is not my native language, though I'm trying my best. Many thanks to _**SadEcho**_, native english speaker**, **who is patiently correcting my grammar mistakes, beta reads this story and overall helping me to further improve my writing with her accurate remarks :)_

_Also, thanks to and with her huge help we started to reword this story. Don't worry though, storyline won't be changed, just the way I tried to express my thoughts and ideas :)_

_Enjoy the reading :)_

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_**Warnings:** Minor foul language_

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_She knew, that letting Luffy steer the Sunny wasn't the best idea she could agree with, but who could forebode something like this to happen?_

* * *

An impossibly blue sky reflected off the waters, gleaming with the bright sunlight that shined from above. White clouds gently floated on a breeze that slowly picked up its pace as the sun made its way across the sky. All was peaceful and the weather was looking promising for now. But Nami knew that such peace couldn't last very long, not when you were on the Grand Line and certainly not when you were a Strawhat pirate.

"Naaaamiiiiii!~"

A childish pout resonated over the deck, irritating the navigator's nerves as she reluctantly relinquished her peace."No Luffy, I said no!" She resolutely declined her captain's idea, which, like always, smelled like trouble - a big one in fact.

"But ...!" The raven-haired boy pouted while sitting down and crossing his legs.

"No buts! We just left Fishman Island! This is the New World and there needs to be an expert at the helm at all times!" Nami had tried to reason with the rubber man before, but it was pointless. For a few seconds they glared at each other before Luffy got up again and jumped right behind Franky, who currently had duty at the helm.

"Frankyyy, say something ... can I steer Sunny? Can I? Can I?"

The cyborg looked down at the enthusiastic little captain, who was looking up at him with sparks of excitement in his wide, dark brown, eyes. Looking aside to where the mikan-head was sun tanning and shooting a warning glare at him, Franky silently shook his head. "If Nami-aneki says no, than I can't say yes," the cyborg answered with an apologetic voice.

"But Frankyyyyy ..."

"What can I do to make him give up this stupid idea?" Nami sighed, looking at her captain overflowing with energy. Luffy was able to go from an absolutely exhausted sleeping state to booming right into one of extreme energy. Her captain's inhuman stamina could not be explained through any normal logic. And his stubbornness ... that was a chapter in of itself. Once he took something into his rubber head, there was no way to get it out.

"Nami-swaaaan!~"

Sanji's lovey-dovey voice reached them from the kitchen. "Can I make you some lemonade to soothe your poor nerves? Or should I kick some sense into our idiotic captain and Marimo as well?" Small pink hearts formed instead of his eyes as he begun wiggling around like a boiled noodle. The cook managed to shoot a fiery glare in the direction of the swordsman in question in-between of his wild noodling.

"'The hell, dartboard brow?" Zoro growled.

"Don't act like you don't know anything, shitty Marimo." Sanji sneered at his eternal rival. "If my beloved Nami-swan or Robin-chwan wants me to kick your ass, I will gladly oblige."

"You would gladly agree to fight even without their encouragement, ero-cook."

"Stop it, both of you!" Nami warned, the twirling of the Clima Tact in her hands was enough for both of the males to stop their argument. They reluctantly resigned themselves to only send death glares towards each other. The danger of electrocution from the enraged navigator was something that kept both of them at bay, at least for now.

Her intimidating gaze flickered over to Usopp and Chopper, both silently sitting at the railing. They were fishing, now with terrified expressions. They wisely chose to redirect their gaze elsewhere, sweating and trying to look as small and as uninterested as possible to avoid the wrath of the navigator.

"Scaryyyyy..." they both whispered towards each other, throwing a cautious glance at Nami, who had return to her deckchair again with closed eyes.

"My heart is delighted to see our dear Nami-san as energetic as ever! Yohohoho!" Brook chimed while holding his violin. "But I don't have heart! Skull joke!" His antics earned him a chuckle from Franky and Robin and smiles from rest of the crew, except Luffy, who grinned like a madman with his trademark ear-to-ear grin.

"Sanji-san?" Robin asked politely, looking at how the blonde literally jumped off the deck to rush to her side.

"Anything Robin-chwan! Do you need a massage, something sweet for a snack, or would you prefer something else?" the cook began, showering the archaeologist with offers as his nostrils flared at the thought of serving the beautiful woman.

"Coffee would be great, please," she smiled, gesturing towards her empty cup.

"In just a moment my dearest!" Sanji sang, much to Zoro's distaste, as he disappeared in the kitchen like a flash.

"He must really have lost some gear during those last two years," the swordsman said as he shook his head. It looked like Sanji had become even more obsessed with women, though the transfusion at Fishman's Island had definitely helped. At least he didn't try to nosebleed to death every time his eyes were set on Nami's chest covered only in a swimsuit top anymore…Or at least not as much.

A thundering boom suddenly resonated above the water's surface. All of the strawhats stopped what they were doing, staring out into the open sea as they searched for the mysterious noise. Were they being attacked so early on in the New World?

"Marines are right behind us!" Usopp yelled from the railing, pointing in the direction of the ships. "Why are there so many of them?!"

He was right. A fleet of four marine's vessels had appeared on the horizon behind the Sunny. They were far away enough that they couldn't shoot Sunny from that distance.

This obviously counted on the fact that Monkey D. Garp wasn't on any of the decks of the ships. Admiral Garp the Fist was far better than any existing marine cannon. Just because a pirate ship wasn't in the ship's range, didn't mean that it wasn't in _his_ range.

"It doesn't look like they are after us," Robin stated calmly after observing quietly for a few seconds. "But what are they doing?"

It was a bit weird, but it seemed that three of the four marine ships were chasing after the one in the front. The way water geysers formed around the chased one clearly said that the marines were not against shooting down what appeared to be one of their own vessels.

"Hey, are they playing some screwed up version of tag, or what?" Sanji frowned, tearing his glare from the swordsman, who also had turned to look in that direction.

"Dodge or die maybe?" Zoro asked as his eyebrow cocked up.

"That's so cooool!" Luffy's eyes began to emit stars of awe. "Hey, how about we play that game too? It looks really fun!" he said, turning with his usual grin towards his crew.

"FORGET IT!" The yell of unison immediately filling the poor captain's eardrums.

"It sounds interesting but ..." Brook rubbed at his boney chin with a skeletal finger. "Yohohohoooo ... I'm already dead!" He announced with something that could be translated as a wide grin considering his skull face. "Skull joke!"

"STOP ENCOURAGING HIM!" Most of the crew roared out at the unfortunate skeleton.

"It's bad enough that Luffy's still enforcing his stupid idea about steering!" Nami added in irritation. The navigator checked the Log Pose for about the hundredth time in the last half hour. She had learned the hard way that this particular kind of navigation instrument had to be checked on regularly. "Still on course," she exhaled with relief as she mentally wiped her forehead.

"I hope those guys are okay ..." Chopper sighed. His compassion towards his enemies, those that did not immediately endanger his life, or the life of his nakama, had not changed at all. "I mean, why would marines be shooting at their own people?"

"Maybe someone kidnapped it?" Robin offered.

"Who would be stupid enough to steal a marine battleship?" Nami shook her head, and her look fell on Luffy, who was jumping on the railing and loudly encouraging the escaping ship. "Oh yeah ... I know one idiot stupid enough..." She face-palmed herself mentally, "... but he's currently with us."

"The Grand Line is big and wide," the dark haired archeologist said with a knowing smile. "From time to time, newspapers spread articles about 'mysterious kidnapping and returning of marine battleships'. But because they never clearly stated who was responsible for such acts, most people chose to believe that it was meant as a joke for the readers. Something to lighten them up from the chaos the world had fallen into after the Marineford war."

"I don't think the world has the ability to contain any more crazy idiots like him," Nami uttered as she looked at her captain with disbelief.

"That reminds me of when I was younger ..." Usopp said, taking his chance, and pointed to himself with a thumb "I used to capture marine vessels pretty often since they had gone and sank my own ship down." Nodding with his head and pointing his long nose towards the sky, Usopp added, "It was really dangerous, I say to you, but they were never able to catch me!"

"Reallyyyyy?!" Chopper and Luffy asked as they stared at sniper with awe. "That's fantastic, Usopp! What happened after?"

"They didn't stand a chance against Captain Usopp, the brave warrior of the sea!"

"They really have not changed at all." Robin stated, looking at the lawn deck where Zoro and Sanji fluently continued their never ending match. Chopper and Usopp ran around them replaying the recent event, followed by matching music played by Brook.

"Not that I expected them to change at all." Nami sighed, but smiled afterwards. "I guess it wouldn't be as much fun anymore if they did."

"But certainly it would be less stressful."

"Eh ... can't disagree with that."

It didn't even look like they had ever been separated for two long years. Sure, their exterior had changed, most of them had physically matured, but the same couldn't exactly be said when it came to their attitudes or personalities. It was like any other day back then; loud, joyous, pleasant ... mostly loud. Nami certainly couldn't believe that back then Luffy could be even louder (and eat even more) than two years ago. After Ace's death she had noticed a subtle change in her captain. But her thoughts were stopped as she smiled at Luffy's misfortune when he stumbled over Zoro and ruined his and Sanji's fight which immediately lead to a game of "Run or Die". Run before an enraged Zoro or Sanji caught you, or you would become dead meat served for tonight's dinner.

"Looks like they are flying a white flag," Franky noted. "It doesn't look like that fourth did any damage to them."

"The whole situation over there is just ridiculous. Marines fighting marines? Pff…" Nami shook her head, trying to grasp the fact.

"Ridiculous or not, maybe it's some kind of habit in the New World?" Franky mused, ducking as Luffy's rubber body flew over his head to bounce against wall like balloon; followed by his stretched out arm, still holding his straw hat, which didn't had a proper speed to match the flying captain. "But its super funny to watch!" the cyborg grinned, striking his usual pose.

"Cut it out you IDIOTS!" Three sure hits grounded the monster trio into the lawn as Nami's nerves finally snapped. "If you want to play football with Luffy, wait until we arrive at some island, unless you want to destroy the Sunny before we even get anywhere!?"

"Hai Nami-swaaaaan!" Sanji exclaimed, earning him another jab to the ribs from Zoro before he disappeared to the kitchen. It was high time to begin preparing lunch.

"Scaryyyy..." Usopp, Brook and Chopper voiced as they immediately hid behind Franky. Nami's death-promising glare slid past them. Robin's laughing chimed through the air as she watched the whole scenery. Even Franky's defensive expression and stance was simply priceless.

Nami's fury didn't last long as she looked at the huge, dangerous looking, cyborg that apologetically held up his massive arms while trying to be as small as possible. When the corners of her mouth began to twitch it was a certain sign of safe ground for the Strawhat's men. After the situation finally calmed down, all of the crews familiar antics lead up to a load of laughter from everyone, so loud that even the Sunny began to tremble as if it too were smiling.

Everyone felt it the same way. Even after two years, none of them had really changed.

* * *

"Dammit, Luffy!" Sanji pushed with his foot again in a desperate attempt to restrain the captain from entering the kitchen and eating the whole lunch alone, which turned out to be much harder than he had anticipated. "Let go or I'll really let you starve to death this time!"

"But I'm huuungryyyy..." Luffy's pleading voice, muffled by the shoe in his face, managed to soften Sanji's heart a little. Who had the heart to resist those two big, dark, puppy-like eyes?

Maybe someone who didn't know the scale of the captain's appetite, but definitely not Sanji… Especially not this Sanji, who had a whole year's worth of experience from a certain bottomless stomach.

"Like hell!" A prompt kick sent the boy flying across the desk.

"Nami-swaaaan, Robin-cwhaaaan!" the cook cried out, dancing across the lawn deck over to the two ladies. "Lunch is ready for you! ~"

"Thanks Sanji." Nami replied, flicking his shoulder in thanks with a scheming smile before she headed together with a subtly smiling Robin into the kitchen. The cook looked after them for just a few seconds as they disappeared inside the ship. Then turning his glare towards the rest of the crew, he proceeded to light his cigarette.

"Hey! Get your asses down there, lunch is ready!"

It had an instant effect on the crew. Looking like flashes, they literally dropped whatever had been in their hands and what they were doing. They sprinted towards the kitchen at the highest speed possible, almost leaving burning trails behind them. A little brawl in the door was nothing new, since they had been designed to contain only one person at once and not almost the entire Straw Hat crew's hungry pack of necks. Maybe Franky should consider redesigning them a wider version. Sanji's gaze wandered to a hunched body on the deck.

"Oi, Marimo." He poked the sleeping swordsman with the tip of his foot. "Did you expect an extra invitation or are you just doing charity on behalf of our shitty bottomless captain's stomach?"

"Aye aye..." Zoro yawned, cracking his good eye open as he was disturbed from his nap that he usually took before lunch. "Slightly early today, love cook."

"If you're gonna' complain, I can kick your shitty ass instead of feeding you."

"Like you even stand a chance."

"Okay, whatever." Sanji turned on his heel, slowly walking towards the kitchen. "Luffy will surely find a good use for your food."

"Don't even think about it, curly brow!"

The chilling air at Sanji's back warned him before his body was slashed in two by a pissed off swordsman. Stopping his blade with a well-aimed counter kick, Sanji just smirked at Zoro. "Then get your ass to the kitchen. I'm afraid I'm not responsible for guarding your food."

That was Sanji's win when Zoro sheathed his sword while sprinting inside the ship. But they both knew that Sanji would rather die than let anyone starve, but it was just the game they liked to play together. After all, it was like ritual that had developed between them. And to be honest, they didn't really felt comfortable without their consistent sneering and fighting, although both of them would never admit that out loud. Maybe a little change, some fresh wind, would be nice to spice it up.

* * *

"Can I? Can I? Can I?"

Here we go again. It was bad enough that Luffy sounded like broken gramophone record, but his stamina was beyond imaginable. She should have known better than to believe that their captain would have let that idea go so easily.

"Okay, okay!"

Nami finally gave up, not wanting to spend the rest of the day with a pounding migraine and the rubber man behind her back every time she moved. "But only as long as nothing changes! And someone will be at the helm with you at all times!"

"Yayyyyy!"

That overly loud exclamation of joy, bursting from her captain, made Nami grimace. Although everyone was a bit sleepy after such a good lunch, there was still one being who just couldn't sit calmly and rest like everyone else.

"Franky, can I ask you to keep an eye on him?" Nami inquired as she turned towards the cyborg that shot her a thumb up in response.

"Don't worry, I'll make SUPER sure, he won't do anything stupid!" The robotic man grinned, striking his usual pose as Luffy bounced behind the helm to firmly grab the steering wheel.

"Why doesn't that make me feel any more at ease?" Nami muttered to herself as she watched both men discussing about how to steer the ship in the best way.

"A fruity drink just for you my ladies ..." Sanji chimed, as he appeared out of nowhere with a perfectly chilled, appealing drink, just behind Robin and Nami "Great as the dot behind lunch and cooked with pure love!"

"You are so considerate, Sanji!" Nami smiled, not forgetting to throw a bit of sugar in her words as she took the refreshing glass from the platter. "Thanks a lot!"

"Thank you, Sanji-san." Robin sipped from her glass, enjoying the rich taste of different fruits on her tongue, before returning to her book.

"Anything my lovely ladies! For you, I would go to the end of the world!" The cook noodled around the deck chairs, ignoring the annoyed glare from Zoro.

As the swordsman climbed up to his gym, the flapping of wings from some kind of bird, which had landed on the upper yard of the rear mast, caught Zoro's attention. But it wasn't too unusual. Sometimes, seagulls followed their ship, given the fact they were smart enough to realize, that with Luffy, Usopp and Chopper on board, they didn't even need to move an inch to get food. But this particular bird was alone and didn't look like seagull at all.

Briefly the green haired swordsman yawned and blinked, only to open his eyes and see that the bird was nowhere to seen.

"I must be seeing things ..." he thought as he scratched his head before disappearing through the trapdoor.

Such a good lunch took its toll on everyone. After the commotion at Fishman's island it was almost a physical need to lie down for a while and get some rest. While Zoro "took watch" at the crow's nest, Usopp decided to lock himself in his factory to make more of his special ammo. Chopper fell asleep in his beloved spinning chair in his office and Robin went and dug herself into the library under the Sunny's deck, trying to find a particular book she has been interested in, which appeared to be task that was harder than it looked. Sanji began to scrub off dirty plates and pots, which takes him some time, and Nami had decided to take a bath. From the time Franky had built the Sunny and to when she had discovered the luxurious bathroom, she divided her time equally between drawing the maps, sun tanning on the deck and bathing in thick foam. Through all those activities, she never forgot to regularly check the Log Pose for whether the ship was staying on the course or not.

The slow and sweet melody of Brook's violin playing from speakers lulled even Franky, who had been resting with his back against the railing near helm, to a comfortable sleep. Though Franky didn't really wanted to violate Nami's orders, he decided that a bit of sleep (and bit more freedom for Luffy), wouldn't hurt anyone. Franky had already taught him how to check a Log Pose near the helm and some basic facts about steering. And in case something did happened, Luffy could immediately wake the cyborg up.

For now, Luffy decided to enjoy his new important role in the routine aboard the ship that he deliberately took upon himself. What the rubber man didn't count on was a sudden gust of wind from behind that knocked his precious straw hat from his head and gradually brought it to the sky as it was caught in rising wind current. While perfectly aware of the sleeping Franky, who he didn't wanted to wake up yet, Luffy stifled a yell in his throat and instead, immediately shooting out his rubber hand to catch disobedient headpiece. Before his fingers grasped the brim, something dropped from the sky like stone directly onto his hat, grabbing it firmly in black claws. With a fast, graceful, spiral it avoided his hand and rose to the sky again. Now the captain was looking up at his treasure, which suddenly had two gray wings, as it flew away.

"Give that back you damned bird!" he hissed angrily at such a mean action. Warily, in afterthought, he turned his head towards the still sleeping cyborg; who was lightly snoring in his nap. Eyeing the escaping hat and its thief, he locked the helm. He had seen Franky do this many times before.

Firmly he grabbed the railing and shot himself out to the sky with Gomu-Gomu no Rocket to pursue his prized possession. All while the Sunny was slowly gaining speed thanks to amplifying wind to the back.

It was like the bird was taunting Luffy, who tried to catch him in midair, successfully dodging every attempt of rubber captain. Though Luffy had gotten decent speed at first, gravity was merciless, and slowly but surely, he began to drop down according to the ballistic curve. Too late Luffy realized his mistake. He was about to successfully land in the open sea when he spotted a rather little boat on the high waves. If he could manage to land on it he would be lucky.

Just enough to irritate the pissed off rubber man, the falcon decided to fly before him for a few mocking seconds, wiggling the hat just out of Luffy's reach, before it swiftly headed back into the sky again.

"Aaaaargh!" The frustrated yell ripped the comfortable silence of sea apart abruptly. Luffy flew through the air, aiming right for the small boat.

The redhead inhabitant of the vessel yelped in shock, managing to duck just in time not to be knocked over the side by the flying torso, which overflew the boat and ungracefully landed into the waves in geyser, splashing the redhead from head to toe. "The hell was just that? " The redheaded pirate scratched at his head, looking up to the plain sky. Still rather confused, the redhead frowned when the small bubbles stopped appearing on water's surface. No one had appeared above the water.

"Stupid devil fruit's users," the pirate assumed grumpily. "I can't just let him drown dammit ... Well, I'm drenched anyway so it won't make that much of a difference in the end." The redhead sighed self consolingly before jumping straight into the rising waves. The wind had been picking up for some time now.

It took just seconds for the experienced swimmer to find the drowning, limp body, slowly sinking towards the deep sea bed. Then, without wasting any more time, two strong arms dug through the watery mass and propelled its owner deeper down into the churning waves. After a few moments the redhead had reached down far enough to stop Luffy from submerging further. With a firm grasp at the unbuttoned red shirt, the redhead kicked at the water, propelling the both of them back to the surface.

With a gasp, both of them emerged back to the world full of air. The dark redhead began to look out for the ship. Even with furled sails, it had managed to move on the water surface thanks to the power of the waves.

Folding Luffy's arms around the redhead's neck, the latter adjusted the powerless body till it rested against their back. Maintaining a steady speed, they began to make their way towards the rocking boat.

Finally, they reached the vessel. The redhead unceremoniously threw Luffy on board, tightly gripping the side when a wave splashed over them again. But as soon as the wave subsided, all of that red hair literally stood up in shock when the huge hull of another ship suddenly appeared right behind the side of the boat; which inconveniently stood just in the larger vessel's way.

* * *

"What a great bath ..." Nami hummed in satisfaction as she walked out from bathroom. Checking the Log Pose on her wrist, she slightly frowned, realizing they had gotten a bit off course ... but luckily not too much. Nothing that couldn't be fixed. Although the wind was still picking up speed, causing the Sunny to sway on the surface even more, she didn't hear anything that could have been described as commotion, brawl, or disaster. While she could, Nami let her ears savor the comfortable, rare, silence. But her instincts were telling her that the weather will change to be rougher, though she still had some time before that happened.

"Silence... wait." Nami's train of thought abruptly stopped when she realized the situation. Every time there was silence on board of Sunny it meant that a storm was nearby and it was not just a whim of the weather. Silence and Luffy just went along as well as Luffy and sea.

As if to confirm her sense of foreboding, the Sunny suddenly shook and disgusting cracking sounds alarmed the whole crew. It was better to not think about what kind of horrors could have happened to their ship. Nami darted towards the deck.

"What happened?" Chopper asked her. He was seriously worried and maybe still a bit scared when she had almost tackled him. "Is everyone all right?"

"I don't know!" From the deck she could already hear alarmed voices of the other Straw Hats. "Franky! What happened?!" She hurriedly barked at the cyborg, who had been holding the helm. "Where is Luffy?"

"What's happening?" Usopp's surprisingly scratchy voice hollered from the underbelly as he sprinted to the deck. He was burned to a smoldering, blackened crisp. The impact had probably set off an explosion or something that he was mixing in his factory.

"I don't know! When I woke up he was nowhere to be seen," Franky apologized, securing the Sunny.

"You fell asleep? Didn't I tell you that you need to keep an eye on him?" Nami was freaking out, jumping slightly backwards to move out of the way of the little doctor who had been running around asking everyone separately if they were all right and assuring himself that no one needed medical attention.

"But that lunch was so SUPER tasty and Brook's melody was so SUPER calming ..." Franky began to explain, but was been interrupted by a cheerful, almost too characteristic, giggle.

"Yohohoho! I'm glad that you liked it! It's my new piece called the Lulling Sea!" Brook proudly stated.

Upon realizing that their ship was not currently under attack, the emotions slowly calmed down.

"He must have gotten bored and went to find other fun." Nami smacked her forehead for foolishly thinking that Luffy would have a longer attention span. How long were they sailing without any actual guidance?

"By the way, what was that cracking sound?"Sanji pointed out, lighting the cigarette as he hurried from the kitchen. "It was like we hit something ..."

"I took a look at the underbelly, but it doesn't look like the hull was damaged," Robin said as she appeared while holding her forehead.

"Robin! Are you all right?!" Chopper freaked out, smelling a bit of blood from archaeologist.

"It's okay, Chopper-kun, I was hit by a falling book. Half of the library fell out of its shelves upon the impact."

"If I ever discover what kind of shitty asshole is responsible for this ..." Sanji chewed the cigarette, snarling his threats around it. Damaging the ladies of strawhats in any way was just clearly asking for a long and painful death.

"Oi, where is Luffy?" Zoro asked, frowning. He had just ended his brief search through the usual favorite hiding spots of Luffy, but despite the lack of the rubbery captain, he still could sense his presence.

"It looks like we ran over some kind of boat," Franky announced, looking at the wreck, now encased in something that looked like a rubber bag with a mast proudly sticking out. Most of all, it reminded him some kind of weird lollipop floating on the water upside down.

"What do you mean, we ran over a boat? We are in the open sea of the Grand Line! There's no way there would be a simple small boat out here!" Nami tried to reason with Franky, who stood on his ground. "It would have sunk during the first small storm out here!"

"But it doesn't look like boat at all!" Usopp added while pointing at the weird item.

Sure, in its present state it did not even look like a boat or ship at all.

"That doesn't necessarily have to be true," Zoro grunted in a dark tone. "Remember what happened at the Baratie." Apparently, memories associated with the event didn't belong to the merriest ones the swordsman had.

"My dear shitty Marimo, let me tell you that Hawkeye is a bit of an extreme case, or on a completely different scale so to speak," Sanji answered with a smug tone and matching smirk.

"And what's makes you so sure that he's the only one capable of such a thing?"

"We are on the Grand Line, after all," Robin repeated with her same words from not so long ago along with her usual cryptic smile. She sat calmly as Chopper ran around her, nursing her bump.

"Yohohoho! But I don't see anyone around or inside! ...Although I don't have any eyes!" Brook never failed to disappoint, even in a situation like this. "Maybe it was just an old wreck?"

"This all sounds a bit crazy." Nami looked worried. She didn't really like how the situation was beginning to develop.

"Whew, that was close." An unfamiliar, slightly raspy voice came from behind. The disturbed strawhats, musing about the identity of mysterious boat, turned all eight of their heads to immediately snap towards the source of sound, which was squatting on top of the railing and dripping wet with salt water, looking like some parody of a sea nix. The redhead was staring down the same direction as them.

"I hope you have a good reason for this, otherwise I'll have to add it into my list of one of the most original ways of asking for a game round," the redhead said with a hint of negligence, but also with a bit of an irritated undertone.

Violently the redhead shook its red locks, sending tiny droplets of water everywhere in the near vicinity until the shorter hairs on the top were wildly sticking out at all sides, creating first-class frizz. The thick braid of hair hanging over the right shoulder was still dripping wet as well as the fringe, clinging onto and covering half of the face. Both sections of hair were heavily soaked with salt water. But it wasn't the tattered and shredded edges of faded, black loose trousers, reaching almost down to the bare ankles and feet and secured with a green sash around the hips. Nor was it the halfway unbuttoned shirt of the same color with graying bandages, tied around the chest underneath it. Neither was it the green scarf that was tied tightly around the neck under the collar, nor a large red faded piece of cloth casually hanging from the right forearm. Not even both of the swords the intruder held in their right hand with their sageos draped around the wrist.

Only the limp body, resting over the back of the slightly irritated and uninvited guest, which just let out loud groan acquired the attention of strawhats.

* * *

_**Illustration: **_**Uninvited Guest**_ ( jittuse dot deviantart dot com slash art/I-hope-you-had-a-good-reason-for-this-36531667 1?q=gallery%3Ajittuse&qo=0 )_

_(Because one picture will say more than a thousand words ... ;) Sorry for the inconvenience with link, don't know yet how to paste it there in smarter manner)_

* * *

_Uff. When I began to write, I thought about 2k words per chapter will be standard count, but after barely writing the first chapter, it looks like I need to reconsider that. :D_

_I hope you will enjoy this story, though I prefer to call it "author's verbal diarrhea" given the fact how it's rising out of pen, and will be gentle with me, since it's my first attempt to write something in English which is not my native language._

_Also it's my first attempt ever to write something from the One Piece universe._

_Constructive critique and advices are welcomed anytime :)_

_Thanks a lot_

_Jitt_


	2. 02: At the sword's edge

_Thousand huge thanks to _**SadEcho**_, since without her support I would probably lost the courage to pull all of this off. :)_

_Do not own One Piece, just playing with characters in my own way._

* * *

_**Warnings:** Minor foul language_

* * *

_Those, who dare to threaten or harm anyone from the Strawhat's crew usually don't live for long ... and those, who dare to provoke Zoro on top of that, will die even sooner. Or... not?_

* * *

The reaction was instantaneous and within a split of second the intruder was facing all kinds of weapons from swords, to foot, blue staff, a cane mounted with a slingshot, and to the really big arm with a gaping hole in it. But the redhead didn't even flinch, looking with the same unfazed, mildly irritated expression that now contained a hint of morbid curiosity. Either the intruder was completely oblivious of the fact that the whole crew was on stand-by for a fight, or goddamn confident in his own actual abilities. Or both.

"You!" a growl almost spilled from Zoro's lips when he recognized the face much to the brief confusion of the rest of the crew.

Dozens of arms suddenly sprouted out of the railing to try and hold the intruder down. Another set appeared right behind the neck of the redhead in an attempt for a forward strangle. Without any sign of attacking in response, the intruder fluidly leapt backwards out of their reach, sliding back into the water as smoothly as a well struck nail into the wood, with Luffy still at his back, and disappeared.

"Luffy!" Chopper shrieked, jumping out from behind Robin from where he had hidden before. In his alarmed state he rushed over to the railing, jumping over and forgetting he would turn into sack of potatoes as soon as he will hit the water.

"Chopper!" Brook screamed, leaping down to the water too in a desperate attempt to save his nakamas. Devil fruit or not.

"Brook! Chopper!" Nami paled with fear, but maybe if she was a bit faster she could have at least caught this, two splashes resounded from the starboard as the two devil-fruit's users sealed their own unfortunate fates.

"Wait, you idiots!" Sanji screamed, kicking off his boots and throwing off the black jacket before leaping over the railing too.

"I'll slice him into noodles! He will regret ever being born!" Zoro growled, partially with anger and partially with worry, knowing all too well what kind of effect the sea water has on his rubber captain and nakamas who were unable to swim. He did not bother to even kick off his boots or put aside his swords. The swordsman threw himself into the waves head first.

Sunny dangerously swayed on the water surface, steadily rising as the waves became even bigger, causing Franky to rush behind the helm to grasp at the steering to secure the ship at the sea.

Usopp's yelp of shock briefly after alerted that part of crew, who had decided not to get wet, that something was going on again. The sharpshooter stood there, rooted to the ground with trembling knees, pointing right at the surprised and dumbfounded redhead who had silently appeared at the railing on the port side. Luffy was still hanging from the back of person, who was squatting again and for now observing how much the strawhats numbers had gone down.

"Holy shit, that worked better than I thought it would!" the intruder mused in surprise, scratching his head when the sudden movement of the disembodied arms that belonged to dark-haired woman came into sight.

"Continue and Simon will say, that _these _will stop being sheathed. On the other hand, I'm not going to insist on a fight." the redhead casually interjected, raising the hand with the two sheathed, wrapped in pieces of black cloth, swords to emphasize the warning enlaced behind those words. It was as if the redhead was merely commenting on the weather, not facing an actual danger of attack.

"Then why did you ambush us in the first place?" Robin asked with a smile, though she meant the question as mostly rhetorical. Her arms were still crossed before her chest, ready to attack the second the intruder tried something. From the time she had spent in the company of several different outlaw organizations, she knew better than to trying solving everything through violence, unlike certain others. Sometimes things just worked out best when discussed, willingly or not.

"_Who_ ambushed _whom_?" the redhead asked, pulling out a genuinely confused look, as if questioning Robin's sanity "If my peaceful appearance here is considered as an ambush then what the hell should I take _your _actions for? _Especially_ that part with the _demolition_ of my ship?" The mildly raspy voice began to drift into an annoyed tone, but it drove the point home with frightening accuracy. All highlighted with a good dose of sarcasm in those words.

"We didn't do ... wait ... _what_?" Nami blinked in surprise, not sure if she heard right. "Your _ship_?" she echoed as she tried to grasp what the redhead was saying. "_That little boat?!"_

"Yep, that was my _ship_." the intruder confirmed caustically. "And if you _didn't_, then what you _did_? There are _heaps_ of space around with almost _nothing_ to _crash _into! But _nooo_, you just _have to_ go _straight over _me!" the redhead voiced out, clearly with apparent indignation that arouse from the situation. His heavy gesticulation with a free hand caught the strawhats a bit off guard when Luffy let out another, even louder groan, which with a good dose of imagination could be translated as "Meat!" or a "Hat!", causing the redhead to snap at the poor rubber man over it's shoulder.

"And _you,_ stop groaning into my ear so loud dammit! If you didn't want to end up like this you shouldn't tried to play 'Everything is flying, what have wings' in the first place!" the intruder scolded the boy while shaking the shoulder Luffy was leaning against. But inside that coarse, irritated voice there was clearly a concerned undertone, followed with heavy sigh and face palm. But the captain just groaned something even louder in answer. The redhead decided to slide the completely exhausted Luffy from his back, ignoring how the trio on deck stiffened in alert, and slowly placed him down on the lawn into sitting position to be supported by the railing. After that the intruder continued in a calmer, but still very assertive tone as if he just shook off almost all of the previous irritation. "Either way you look at it, this being just an accident is highly unlikely. So, I'm really _very_ interested in your explanation, since it will determine the next course of my actions."

"And we are really _very_ interested as to what _you did_ to _him_." a cold and intimidating growl came from the side to interrupt the ongoing debate, causing the redhead's visible eye to temporarily leave the mikan head to see where it came from.

At the railing stood Zoro, towering above the squatting redhead with his right thumb resting on the white hilt of Wado Ichimonji in a silent warning towards the intruder; he better had a good reason for this if he valued his own life.

One green eye slid over the menacing swordsman. All the way from the unusual minty green, cropped, and spiky hair, down to the feet, encased in black, sturdy boots, and stopping briefly at the three swords tucked into the scarlet sash, before the eye rose back up with a daring glare.

The redhead pulled out a completely careless smile, closing both eyes in the process. "First things first. I asked sooner."

Cracking a maliciously amused smile at the unexpected reaction, Zoro was secretly pleased that this annoyance didn't flake out under his glare in the first few seconds. The swordsman flicked a sword out with his thumb with a loud click, digging his predatory-like glare hard into the audacious intruder. Wordlessly he hinted that the redhead would be better off answering _right now,_ unless he wanted something _very nasty_ to happened.

Absolutely unfazed by the threatening glare, the redhead continued that provocatively innocent smile, cracking a green eye half open as if to tease the swordsman. That impish look said _exactly _what the green-haired man could do to this person.

Zoro's smile popped right into a demonic grin as the swordsman slowly pulled out Wado Ichimonji, placing its edge dangerously near the redhead's neck. Though not initially wanting to resort to this, if that daredevil wanted it this way, he would gladly oblige. There were some unsorted bills between them after all, and why not grab the opportunity when it was right under his nose?

The only sound, that disturbed the uneasy and tense silence was splashing as Sanji climbed back on deck, dragging the exhausted Chopper and Brook up with him. Even the wind disappeared for a while, as if afraid of what would happen next.

"Damn Marimo, what the hell are you thinking?! Throwing Chopper at me like some kind of shitty ball?!" Sanji complained, chewing around his drenched cigarette as he threw both of his heavy burdens onto the lawn. Upon registering the situation he couldn't suppress his smirk. "Ah, so you decided to be usefu ..." the cook's words stopped when he realized the situation and tension in the air. "You idiotic shitty Marimo! You can't just kill him when you want to ask the questions! That's not how interrogation works!" Sanji snapped at the swordsman's behavior towards intruder, realizing another of the Zoro's quirks afterwards. "And stop challenging that bastard, goddammit!"

"Ehehe ... _this_ _again_? Seriously?" Redhead thought with a successfully hidden spike of amusement, temporarily forgetting about the sword at his neck "I smell a lot of fun ahead!" he decided to stick with what the crew assumed, for now. "If they want it this way ..." This kind of amusement, that was sure to be in the future, just couldn't be overlooked by someone like him.

No one moved a finger. The eyes of everyone still conscious were glued to the green-haired swordsman who towered above the squatting redhead. Zoro was sending out his usual "you are soo screwed" type of killing intent that was reserved for such occasions.

Redhead's face darkened as the fringe shadowed both eyes and the corners of his lips dropped slightly. Avoiding any unnecessary movement, giving off the vibe of utter carelessness. Intruder moved his weight from left leg to right, sliding the left foot to the side and moving just an inch out of reach from the swordsman's blade currently endangering his neck, wrapped in green. While not leaving the squatting position, he did not exactly move away further either.

Taking a firm half step to get the intruder near his sword again, Zoro returned the blade back at its temporary place at the redhead's neck, showing that there wouldn't be an easy way out of trouble the intruder just embedded itself into. Messing with strawhats was never a good idea even with Luffy temporarily out of order, since Zoro was usually more than proficient enough to fill in for him until the captain caught up. He was like really good insurance in case something went wrong, which tended to happened at regular basis. Still the swordsman couldn't suppress a disappointed feeling that had been growing inside of his stomach when he realized how wrong he had initially evaluated the redhead's ability to stand up to him. It left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. He secretly hoped for more fun than just this.

Reverting his one-eyed glare back to reality, the picture before Zoro made him frown. Redhead was still carelessly squatting like nothing had happened, but he was now an inch out of range _again_. As if he was completely oblivious towards what was happening and what was sure to happen next. Zoro began to feel his irritation growing deep within his head. He never let his prey escape. Especially the kind that dared to even think about harming his nakama.

With a deep frown, openly showing off his assumed mental and physical superiority, the swordsman made another half step, emphasizing it with a loud stomp on the railing. It surprised him a little that he didn't even hear, nor felt, the redhead move for the second time. He felt his suspicion accumulating as he spotted the brief, faint smile on the redhead's lips when he moved. But he wasn't the only one who was beginning to wonder what the hell was happening. From a brief look at the rest of his crew, similar confusion was etched in most their faces who were equally unsure what to do.

Despite the legends that had been circulating around the world, the strawhats weren't ones to go into meaningless fights. It was usually Luffy who decided which fight they would pick and which one just wasn't worth of it. But now, with their captain temporarily incapacitated, uncertainty slowly crept into their minds. No one wanted to upset Luffy by making the wrong choice.

If the intruder had been more aggressive, it would have been clear what to do. But until now, despite the strawhat's reactions of the intruder's sudden appearance, there was no sign of hostility towards the crew and even an attempt for a peaceful deal had been made. Of course, real intentions were still hidden somewhere in the thick mist, which only Luffy seemed to be able to see through. And if Luffy wasn't there to see through the mist, then no one else could. The only way to investigate was to get it out of the perpetrator itself, hard way or not.

Returning his glare back down again, a vein in Zoro's forehead literally popped out in full beauty when he found that annoying redhead relaxing a _fucking inch_ out of his range for the third time in a row. The pirate smirked with the impish curiosity of a child that just decided to test where the patience boundary of its parents lies.

Head propped on the left palm, the green eye mischievously looked towards Zoro with something the swordsman translated as the excitement of a child who had just spotted a familiar shape under the Christmas tree, wondering if it was that desired present they had wished for.

The redhead patiently waited for what ever could possibly happen next. Stunned looks coming from Franky, Nami, and Sanji face, together with the terrified expression of Usopp, and decorated with subtle giggle that escaped from Robin's lips, suddenly hit him with a realization right between his eyes.

Zoro stared hard down into the green eye again. Redhead's look only confirmed to him that those weren't random actions at all. The mere ridiculousness of the entire situation right now was simply too much. On top of screaming 'obvious provocation' out loud only served to make Zoro feel like a pissed off bull teased by a huge piece of red cloth, which he somehow had obliviously managed to overlook until now.

That redhead had obviously been making fun out of him from the very beginning and he had foolishly let himself be caught in it!

That was something Zoro's ego couldn't quite stomach and suddenly the swordsman remembered Mihawk's opinion about 'the true nature of redheads', which the warlord had mentioned a few times during Zoro's stay at Kuraigana. Only once had his former master warned him so straightforwardly in such a serious tone, giving out the feeling it was based based on his own unfortunate experiences, to watch himself for anything that happen to have red hair. That was, if he didn't want to aim for a constant headache in the future. Only now he felt a brief spark of understanding towards those wise words. If he had only known that it was for the last time...

Cracking out his trademark predatory crooked smile again, he decided to step up the game for real. A game that could only work out if played by a pair at least. Pleased on the inside that his instinct wasn't too far off this time either, Zoro's face darkened and his eyes slightly narrowed.

"Running away?" said the swordsman, deciding to throw in his own tease into the action, pulling off the most taunting smile in his arsenal.

"Like _what_ does it look?" the redhead asked casually, observing for the green-haired man's reactions and probably trying to predict the next course of their personal game that just started.

"Like you are turning tail already." Zoro grinned confidently, sure this would set the redhead literally on the fire. It worked almost every time ... almost.

"You are half blind. Your other eye probably needs a good checkup too." the redhead politely offered him the possible solution. It caught Zoro a bit off guard. Not that the swordsman would show it on the outside, but inwardly it felt like a kick straight to his ego.

"Then what are you doing?" the swordsman asked in low, dangerous taunting voice, which suitably framed his overall, dangerous as hell impression. If that redhead wanted to play with him so much it would be according to _his_ rules. And he _will_ make sure to enjoy _every bit_ of it. At least until the intruder decided to attack in any way.

"Waiting." Came the immediate, careless answer, with honesty that was bordering on bold insanity and underlined with a subtle mischievous taunt hidden inside, that made Zoro's heart jump in excitement. At least he didn't need to worry that his opponent would turn tail anytime soon, given the intruder's behavior up until now.

Taking a whole, properly emphasized, step forward to make sure it would take more than just crawling to get out of his reach, the swordsman was now standing right behind the redhead as close as possible. He had adjusted the blade to a new position but still aimed for the neck.

"For something in particular?" Zoro had decided for himself beforehand, that despite the ways the redhead had been throwing the answers at him, it would not get the better of him. Not in a million years. It was a simple question of pride.

"Yup." The intruder tilted his head down, sliding under that deadly sharp piece of metal to pop back up, with just the most necessary of movements, over to the safe dull side. The redhead avoided another attempt at cornering, almost immediately sweeping away any of the swordsman's attempts at staying calm.

"Care to share?"

"Mhm." The redhead hummed in agreement, still observing the swordsman with that curiously wondering look. As the black eye slightly twitched, something flashed through that green gaze. But it was so fast it made Zoro wonder whether it was just for the plain intention of making him snap, or something else, which he probably wouldn't like either.

Lowering his head near the intruder's, he decided to take another step further into that battle of patience.

"Do I need to beat it out of you?" he whispered in a menacing tone. At least knowing what the intruders intentions were could help the crew decide their next course of actions. If threatening methods were the only way then he didn't really have a problem with it. As long as it worked out.

"Oh, no, not in the slightest!" the redhead mincingly reacted with passion at such a threat, waving it casually off with his free hand. But the mischievous and taunting undertone didn't loosen in the slightest. "Maybe you are just asking the wrong questions?" the intruder offered politely, shrugging it off in obviously faked uncertainty.

This time it was Sanji who couldn't suppress a chuckle, not counting Robin whose smile had been widening almost all the while. The cook found himself just barely resisting the urge to send the redhead a thumb up since the whole scene was far too satisfying considering how Zoro was getting a taste of his own medicine for all those witty remarks up until now. And in such concentrated form. Not that he himself had been falling too far behind when it came to that. But doing it and looking at it being done by another were two far different things. It was like when you cook for yourself to eat. But food that has been cooked by someone else tastes better every time.

Almost screwing the idea of staying as calm and composed as possible, at this point the green-haired man wanted nothing more than to stomp the redhead eyesore through the sea bed right into the opposite hemisphere of the world.

Flaming red with anger in a similar shade of the hairs near his face, the swordsman completely overheard Usopp's terrified high-pitched squeak caused by the waves of pure dread he was giving out. All of this was catalyzed by the sound Sanji just made. Up in the sky a peregrine falcon decided it had had enough fun with its stolen object and dropped the no longer interesting item from its claws.

"So you won't tell us voluntarily?" the swordsman growled, clearly stating that his patience was rapidly thinning out. It wouldn't be wise to push him any further. Screw his damned pride, at this moment he needed, no, _wanted_, to get the answer out of that daredevil. Despite having superiority in numbers, that carelessness and boldness the redhead had been displaying all this time had begun to unnerve everyone by at least a fraction at some point.

It has to take a huge chunk of courage, or even bigger a piece of confidence, to behave like this before the mostly pissed off pirate crew who were in stand-by for a fight, with an even more pissed off swordsman on top of all that. Or it could have been the complete obliviousness and lack of self-preservation, which had been bordering with pure insanity. It didn't make that much difference, considering it was Zoro who had been pushed to his patience limits of all the possible people.

"I will." The redhead politely smiled like the sun, making Zoro's eye to twitch again. He was beginning to get fed up with this screwed up game; from the initial excitement there was almost nothing left. All that was present was growing frustration, rising irritation, and running out patience and anger that built up deep inside of him, endangering to sweep away everything as soon as the dam would rupture. But he couldn't get the interest in the redhead's possible swordsmanship out of his mind, which was still a great unknown during this whole time. You could call it a professional deformation since every swordsman in the world was infected by this type of curiosity more or less.

"Then spit it out, _right now_." Zoro growled from between his gritted teeth, pressing the blade firmly against green scarf so it slightly cut the fabric apart to emphasize his already clear words. Redhead didn't moved an inch now, but for a second the green eye lost its playfulness and curiosity, fading into blank poker face. Just that brief moment sent strange shivers up Zoro's spine as the green eye deeply stared down to his black one.

"You are no fun, Greenie." the redhead suddenly pouted with childish disappointment, pulling out first-class duckface and reverted the glare aside to emphasize his sudden lost of interest.

Zoro felt like he had just announced to a young child that Santa Claus simply doesn't exist, which proceed right into feeling that he's not aiming for the title of the best swordsman in the world, but for the biggest asshole under the sun instead. Then, the swordsman's patience finally ran out.

His calloused hand shot forward and down to grab the redhead harshly around the neck as Zoro bent slightly down while not moving his blade from its place.

"You goddamn redheaded pain in the ass! You will spill it out this instant, or I'll gut you like a fish!" Zoro yelled, pissed off beyond belief, making Sanji secretly wonder how exactly the intruder managed to hijack Zoro's berserk buttons with such accuracy in such a short time.

"Hey, you don't need to be so tense, you know ..." the intruder innocently commented honestly, clearly wondering what made the swordsman act in such loud and angry manner. This only succeeded in adding to Zoro's growing mount of steam. It also kindled Usopp's already huge fear, and Robin's personal amusement, along with Nami's shocked disbelief.

A hard stare drilled into the side of the green haired head, disturbing the swordsman thoughts as he realized who was staring at him like that. Surprisingly, it was Franky. It took a second for Zoro to realize why the cyborg was treating him like that. Of course. He smacked mentally himself. The shipwright wouldn't appreciate having Sunny decorated with fresh blood just in case he _would_ rip redhead in two if it could be avoided. Truth to be told, two little redheads would be probably even worse, when _just_ one proved to be more than enough.

Upon realizing that, another idea struck him hard. Luffy would be pretty pissed off if he harmed the intruder, given the fact that the redhead wasn't directly threatening or overly intimidating until now. Zoro remembered the beating he suffered from his captain and also a bit later from Nami at Whiskey Peak. Although it had been due to a misunderstanding of his actions, which later proved to be justified. Upon knowing that Luffy would probably find out this whole absurd theater as extremely amusing, Zoro decided to try calm himself down for now, pulling out sour grimaces all the way through that process inside his head. It made him secretly wonder if it was that red-headed pain in the ass's favorite past time to play with people's nerves like that.

"I'm waiting for you to take back your inappropriate, ten-against-one-bet that you made the moment you decided to point your sword at me," the redhead finally answered with genuine honesty and that annoying careless smile again "I'm not the one to take on such meaningless gambles like this one." he tilted his head to the side and watched, how it left most of the crew completely dumbfounded and shocked even more, if that was already possible. Whatever they had anticipated definitely wasn't anything like this. The feeling was like the redhead had just signed his own execution order by adding the last possible drop to the swordsman's already full goblet of patience.

The straw hat, that had been gliding down out of the sky for some time now finally landed; askew on top of the messed up red-haired sod.

Zoro's body instantly froze along with two other persons on board.

At the redhead's words, Luffy's eyes blew wide open, finally snapping the boy out from his slumbering state. It had been a long time since they had heard something very similar, and in one case even longer than that, but it was etched into their minds like carving on the stone. Luffy's head snapped up, seeing the still crouching redhead who now had his prized possession on top of those red locks.

"Shanks!" the startled yelp escaped from the rubberman's lips as his partially clouded mind suddenly offered him a not so different picture from the past. In his surprise he didn't even registered the partially surprised and partially confused look the redhead briefly shot him. None of which escaped the sharp eye of Robin. Luffy at last grasped what was going on upon seeing what was happening at the edge of Wado Ichimonji.

"Zoro!" This time it came off as more alarmed. Luffy locked his gaze with Zoro's in silent communication with him. Understanding what his captain was wishing for, the swordsman finally, yet reluctantly, retracted his blade. After seeing the intruder still squatting with that careless body language, he couldn't resist the urge of having the last word. Very slowly he directed the tip of Wado inside its sheath, pressing it carefully inside as metal ground against metal. All in an intimidating, warning manner.

_'Next time you won't be so lucky.'_

Green eye lit up with straightforward curiosity following those two brief clicks. The redhead menacingly flicked one of his own swords out with a thumb, deftly clicking it back into place. Their one-eyed glares met, the tension between them rising to unbearable levels, almost eliciting small sparks, as the corners of the redhead's lips tugged up into smirk. This made up for the undesired answer, making Zoro's eye twitch again upon realization that his actions were mistaken for a challenge. Or translated as challenge intentionally, which was more likely the case.

_'That sounds like fun.'_

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**_Illustration_: You are no fun **(_ jittuse dot deviantart dot com slash art/You-are-no-fun-377905637 )_

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_Dividing that behemot of the text from before into two separate chapters looks much better I think._

_Poor Zoro .. maybe he should take Mihawk's advices more to the heart ... *muhehehe*_

_Jitt_


	3. 03: Captain's decision

_Thousand thanking letters to _**SadEcho **_for patient editing and beta reading :)_

_I do not own One Piece, just love to mess with characters in my own way._

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_**Warnings:** Minor foul language_

* * *

_Because of what happened, now they are forced to face the ultimatum. Which choice will Luffy pick up in the end?_

* * *

The mutual sharing of intimidation, taunting, and teasing between Zoro and the uninvited guest was abruptly interrupted by a squeak from the rubber captain, who managed to return the atmosphere almost immediately back into a more normal state.

"My hat!" Luffy reached out with his arm, snatching the headpiece right off from the red hair, dusting it off before placing it back into its rightful place. After another few seconds filled with the completely dumbfounded expression of said redhead, and a few sighs coming from the crew, the situation began to develop further.

"So, now that everyone has calmed down, can we move back to business?" the redhead asked casually as if the whole ordeal until now had never happened, reacting to another change in atmosphere. "Where did I stop ..." A dark-skinned and weathered hand ran through the top of the red drying hair, messing it up in the progress "... Ah, I know. Two things: Why did you decided to maim my ship and who's in charge here?" the redhead demanded, his tone of voice clearly hinting that the owner _won't _let the matter go so simply, eliciting a snort of disgust from Zoro.

Without a word, the majority of the strawhats hands pointed silently at Luffy, except for one when ...

***SMACK!*** The rubber head hit the lawn hard and snapped back to its place with one huge bump at the back and another forming on the forehead.

"Naaamiiii! What was that for?" The rubber captain began to complain about being hit. Red eyebrows shot upwards in complete shock, not only at the unusual scene of whatever was happening, but also at how the woman managed to snap the other two devil fruit's users out of their exhausted states like a flick of the fingers.

"_Never again_ will you _ask_ me if you can _steer_ the Sunny... or I'll _raise your debt so high_ that even your bounty _won't cover for it anytime soon_!" the enraged navigator sputtered with rage. Her trembling fists hinted that it was not the best idea to complain to her right now. Unless that person _wanted _to be indebted to her for the rest of their life and maybe even further. Or undergo a death of electrocution, personally delivered by her, on the spot, which was also one of the options.

"Hey, are you sure he's the captain?" the redhead asked uncertainly, turning his generally dumbfounded and suspicious face on the crew; not really getting the meaning behind the violent behavior towards said person. Judging from past experiences, this said something entirely else about a captain's position aboard the ship than what was just witnessed.

"Sure he's the captain! Our most idiotic, and crazy, captain in the whole Grand Line!" Nami snapped towards the daring redhead, who, slightly taken aback, held the dark-skinned hands up in defense, surprised at the proud undertone behind that seemingly angry answer.

"No offense miss, I was just asking ..."

Zoro's lip twitched with huge satisfaction. So even that daredevil was helpless in front of a raging Nami, he concluded, while feeling unbelievably smug inside. Leave it to sea witch when it comes to scaring the shit out of people.

"Well, that would clear the first point ..." the redhead sighed tiredly. "Really, let the beginner steer and you can expect the calamity." A chuckle escaped from his lips at the irony of the statement, though the rest of the bystanders probably didn't understand. Not yet. "Not that it was much different just a few years ago for me." the redhead added mentally, remembering his own past.

"I'm sowwwy... " Luffy incoherently mumbled an apology from around another half dozen of bumps and a new fat lip, "but it was all because of the bird who stole my hat ..." he tried to justify himself, knowing fully well that the part about not telling anyone about his little trip was solely due to his own guilt.

"Wait, _a bird_ ... ?" The red-haired head rose up in attention, snapping out of his memories when the pieces began to fit together.

"Who is that?" Chopper asked cautiously, looking at the strange redheaded guest. He had gone to hide, startled by Nami's outburst, in the opposite direction, behind Brook again, who just shrugged in uncertainty.

"I don't know." the skeleton answered quietly, but looked apparently interested by the whole situation. "But someone really crazy! Yohohoho!" musician whispered in a low tone.

"Some weird freaking lunatic who dared to challenge and push Zoro to the point that he _snapped_." Usopp squeaked quietly, not wanting to drag any unwanted attention onto himself as he was carefully hiding behind Franky's impressive frame.

Chopper's eyes went even wider at such answer, that made the little doctor wonder why both of the participants were still fine and alive without any obvious injuries. Everyone knew more than well how wild, violent, and dangerous Zoro could be when properly stimulated.

"The owner of that boat we managed to break." Robin offered her explanation, looking amusingly interested. While being on her guard was still in place, overacting like before could only worsen, at least for now, the calm situation. Since the redhead wasn't acting openly hostile, even after being threatened with weapons and given the fact they _did_ managed to destroy his vessel, it was a pure luck that their first encounter in the New World didn't turn into an all out war right from the start. Luffy's challenge to one of the Yonko, Big Mom aside from that, was a chapter for itself. Though Robin certainly didn't think low of her strawhat crew, she was enough of a realist to know that they weren't the strongest out in there in the New World, not yet. But on the other hand, how strong was that redhead when it came to fight? Was it all just a tough act before superior numbers?

"This is turning out to be super interesting." Franky quietly muttered. Even he was completely surprised at how the situation was developing and downright shocked by bold actions towards Zoro. Did they know each other? But deep down he was glad, that in the end the swordsman understood his wish. Sunny was meant as a ship of joy, not a ship of gore and dread.

"Yup. Around this big .." Luffy gestured, showing the approximate size with his hands," and gray and white."

"A falcon?" Zoro asked, raising one brow in an incredulous manner as he remembered the bird he saw not too long ago.

"Falcon like hell." the intruder face palmed, dragging his hand down as if wanting to erase his own face completely. "Magpie in disguise! I swear one day I'll use that kleptomaniac chicken as an emergency food supply!" the redhead suddenly snapped. "Magpie on oranges! How does that sound, eh?!" he screamed louder, looking more than just a little pissed off at something in the sky, from where came an aggrieved, high-pitched whistle that caused Chopper to heavily blush even under his thick fur.

"What's the matter, Chopper?" Usopp asked, still confused. "What did that bird said?" the sharpshooter asked curiously, concluding that from what he heard and could understand, only the bird could have caused the little doctor to blush like that.

"U-Uhm ..." stuttered the doctor slightly, blushing even more. "S-she said ..." Usopp cocked an eyebrow in anticipation.

"Yes?"

"G-go fu ... fuckyourself." Chopper blurted out, shocked by his own vocabulary, covering his mouth with hooves in shame. The only time he clung to profanities was during his happy-go-lucky dance when someone praised him, but this was a bit off scale for little reindeer.

"Uhh." Usopp slightly blushed too, dumbfounded. "Weird relationship," he muttered, looking at the pissed off redhead, who was currently shaking a free fist towards heaven, as if challenging a god. "Definitely weird."

"And that's what I get for trying to settle out a mess that I didn't even create. Thank god this time it was just for a hat." the intruder pointed out sarcastically, rubbing the bridge of his nose in apparent surrender. The redhead had still not forgotten any of the troubles previously caused by the same perpetrator, which had turned out much worse than this time.

"That's not 'just' a hat! That's my treasure!" Luffy immediately pouted, defending the status of his precious headpiece. "I made a promise with _him!_" The rubberman got lost in his thoughts for a moment, intently watching somewhere behind the straws.

"Okay, okay, sorry about that. My deepest and sincerest apologies for that goddamn chicken." The redhead finally leapt down from the railing and the crew tensed, but instead they saw the figure bowing in a gesture that could have been described as old-fashioned apology. At that moment the crew noticed the long, leather braided, and rolled whip that was hanging down from the redheads left hip. "Hey, that's really a lawn down there! That's cool!" the intruder bent down, showing the genuine surprise and attention span of a goldfish. As he continued staring at the fresh green grass underneath his bare feet, Nami just couldn't suppress the silent sweatdrop, while Robin covered her mouth, stiffing another giggle.

"It's okay." Luffy slid his hat forward, so the brim hid his eyes. "I'm sorry I destroyed your boat." he apologized, though less theatrically and in his usual way.

"_Ship_." the redhead corrected briefly and Luffy nodded that he understood. "With that, lets get to the second point ... what do I do with this mess." Saying that, the redhead stuck the sageos of his swords between his teeth and flicked out the ragged and faded red piece of cloth. The fabric looked like its best times had ended far too long ago. The redhead shook the cloth open, successfully splashing the nearby crew members in shower of little saltwater droplets, much to their distaste, before draping what was a plain red yukata over his shoulders, despite still being wet. Arms fluidly slid into the too wide sleeves with edges that apparently met the same unfortunate fate as the ends of the redhead's trousers. Like the sleeves, even the bottom line, reaching almost to the ankles, looked sadly tattered and shredded. Leaving the clothing wide open without tying it with anything, it overall underlined the impression of someone poor who couldn't even afford something better to wear. Though a certain bohemian eccentricity definitely couldn't be denied given the huge black crosshair embroidered over the upper back, similar to the smaller red one etched into the black shirt underneath around the same location.

Rustling of weapons filled the air, though this time no one from the strawhats dragged them out redhead chose to ostentatiously ignore them. Pulling the string out of his mouth, he tucked one of the swords at the right side of his sash, while letting the other one hanging freely in his left hand.

"At first, I originally wanted to ask you for wood for repairs and service from a shipwright, if you happened to have them, and also hitch a ride." the redhead began to explain in a casual, mildly assertive tone while crossing his arms before his chest. "However...that was before things turned out as they did ..." The reproachful he glare shot at the innocent looking falcon that was sitting on the upper rear yard rustled its feathers without any further interest about what was going on down there. "Right now, that doesn't sound quite ... right. Given the state my ship is currently in, I think I'll be satisfied with just hitching a ride. Take it or leave it." the redhead outright stated.

Looking at the dumbfounded expressions of the strawhats was more than a little unnerving. Especially given the fact that the deep silence that followed certainly didn't help the situation either. A mixture of "are you kidding", "what the hell are you talking about", "this can't be happening", and one particular "no way in the hell" looks slightly undermined the redhead's sovereignty. The pirate showed a brief moment of uncertainty, much to the satisfaction of the crew, especially a certain green-haired swordsman, who began to feel like looking forward to any kind of struggle the redhead would be put through, leaving him gleefully satisfied.

"Is there any problem with that?" came the honest, yet slightly careless, question towards Luffy who blank-faced stared at the redhead before tilting his head forward to hide his eyes behind the brim again.

"What makes you think that we will agree?" Zoro sneered towards the demanding intruder when his captain remained silent, catching the chance to make Redhead's life harder in payback.

"I'm afraid that won't depend on _you_, but on your captain." the redhead immediately threw back. "But given the fact that you are all caring yourselves around in an odd manner, and to such an extent that even the devil fruit's users jump straight into the sea to save another one, the stupidity and futility of such actions seem like a common occurrence."

"What does that have to do with anything?" the swordsman frowned, not really understanding such an answer. Caring about each other was as natural as breathing. But he couldn't deny the fact that sometimes certain members went to futile lengths in this matter. Still, he couldn't see how it could be used against them when no one was currently under the direct influence of the intruder.

"As I said earlier, I don't mind playing 'Simon says' and have some fun with you. But given the fact that there are at least four devil fruit users on board, if not more, in addition with the total count of two confirmed and considerably good swimmers, there might be more of you than that, then for now I believe that there are nine of you in total. I'm wondering how many of the rest of you, who didn't fall into any aforementioned category, will be able to effectively fight in the oncoming storm. Or even if you can survive, so to speak. At least two of you are needed to keep the _anchors_ from drowning. That leaves six people out of nine. So there are only three of you at worst for me that might be able to oppose me; none left to fight me in worst variant for you. I think I can handle that, or at least manage, to get myself out of here alive in all possible scenarios."

The redhead appeared to be rather talkative when asked in a right way, much to the ever growing shock of the crew. With what the redhead just said, did that mean the whole ship was taken as a hostage? What happened to his peacefulness?

They had anticipated almost everything at this point, but definitely not this detailed description of such a tactic and the facts that managed to leave most of the more intelligent strawhats speechless once again. How many times had the redhead managed to accomplish that in their short time together now? On top of that, revealing the plan of attack to such a wide range of potential enemies just didn't make any sense in the slightest. Instead leaving them all feeling like complete idiots.

Or was this just another way to plainly demonstrate sovereignty and confidence? Or even straightforward shamelessness that showed how far the redhead had underestimated them?

Not thinking about the first or latter, with a sardonic tone, Zoro decided to push his luck a bit more, secretly hoping for a good chance to strike back when he wasn't allowed to speak through his sword.

"In such waves and a oncoming storm?" he returned the intruder's words back. "You will drown like an anchor too."

"Not really, it wouldn't be the first time I've had to fight like this." the intruder just shrugged it off like nothing, overlooking how the jaws of half crew literally hit the floor at such bold statement.

"I would really like to see that." the swordsman chuckled darkly as an answer. He could not deny the genuine honesty, but it was clearly bordering pure insanity at best and not only in his opinion. There _was_ the possibility it was just overly high self-confidence. This or the complete insanity that was already synonymous with this weird entity.

Given the fact that the strawhats alone were more than often considered insane, even within their own crew, and in the short amount of time this particular encounter had dragged on, the redhead being marked as a complete lunatic by people like the strawhats was a feat in of itself.

"If you are unlucky enough you will. Though I must admit, it would be easier if I managed to claim this ship. But even my ambitions don't go that far when it comes to it." the redhead aimed for Zoro with those last words. Even bystanders could see the sparks literally forming between both participants as they wordlessly responded to each other's hidden taunts again.

"Still, your probably very carefully prepared plan is forgetting that we aren't in the water, but aboard our ship." Nami decided to step in, smirking as she exploited the obvious fatal flaw, making Usopp, Brook, Franky and Chopper wondering, how, for goodness sake, they managed to end this kind of debate.

She had witnessed only one person who could slice a ship into two, though Zoro could probably pull that off too now, if he wanted to. The green-haired swordsman was at least one whole size more in terms of plain muscles, though the redhead didn't appeared scrawny either, he was nowhere near Zoro's muscle mass. However, Hawkeye for example, certainly didn't look like the world's best bodybuilder either. Appearances could be very baffling. Even she had been considered as weak and not a threat. That was before she pulled out her magic of thunders. Around that time, enemies usually realized how badly they had evaluated her destructive potential. This could very easily be the same case.

"Didn't I said, that first thing the Simon will say will be destroy this ship first?" the redhead scratched his head, uncertain, but not fazed overall. "Sorry, I forgot. That would have to be the first thing to do apparently." the redhead revised as if discussing what to make for dinner. This highlighted that already apparent insanity even more. The feeling of complete idiocy already planted inside strawhat's consciousness grew dynamically. They began to feel like the redhead had made a sport out of deriding people like this, much like Zoro had experienced before.

"How many of you are there anyway?" Nami warily questioned. She finally decided to withdraw since one didn't need to be an outright genius to see the cruel truth behind that plan. Especially when laid out in such a simplified manner. The navigator certainly didn't want to take that risk, just in case the intruder wasn't bluffing. As impossible as it sounded, they _were_ in _The_ _New World_ on _The Grand Line_, where _anything_ could happen, straight impossible and crazy or not.

"Looks like he's alone." Sanji's voice reached from the upper deck. Just now everyone realized, that he was not present from the time he had almost set Zoro on fire with his chuckle. But that was just his style; investigating at his own danger and alone, as he proved in the Water Seven. No one was really surprised that much.

The cook stared hard at the redhead with a slightly frowned expression, playing with a cigarette between lips. Something about the redheaded male was a bit off, but he couldn't put his thumb on what the hell that was. It wasn't the "what the hell is _that_" feeling, but more like when you can't see just what is lying plainly right under your nose. That had been making him feel a bit uneasy from the moment he spotted this annoyance on the railing for the first time. His thoughts were interrupted by an all too familiar voice.

"The hell, were you were slacking off, idiot cook?" Zoro grunted out. It was far too long since their last verbal battle and that needed to be checked right away. And the win might kick up his wounded ego a bit, if he tried hard enough.

"I was checking on our back, you shitty ungrateful marimo." the cook spat out in the same manner. "Did you really think that he would be here alone, damn idiot?" he pointed out.

"Don't be too cocky, number seven. Did you actually find anything interesting, dartboard?"

"You should stop doing useless things for a change, shitty swordsman. If you don't count the fact that he's obviously here alone, then there's nothing else that you would ever understand with that peanut-sized brain of yours."

"I'm _useful_ all the time, unlike you, Nosebleed-kun."

"Like hell, shitty marimo."

"Shut up, ero-cook."

"You could just ask me, I would have told you." the redhead casually and carelessly mixed into verbal battle before Nami could say something. Whether intentionally or not, the redhead had continued to literally wave a big red flag shamelessly right before Zoro's nose.

Said man shot him another death glare, hinting that he certainly had not forgetten about him. But unfortunately, that did not affect the intended target in the slightest.

"Though I'm not completely alone, when you take it one way or another. Don't forget that chicken up there." the redhead said as he pointed up at the rear mast. "Which reminds me that another one is on the way, though I don't know when exactly he will catch up with us." The intruder scratched his head again while pulling out the worried undertone.

"_Another_ lunatic will show up?" Usopp whispered in terrified disbelief. It was already too much for him, but this new information completely floored him. Person. Sailing the Grand Line. In the New World. _Alone_. Or thee people if you counted the falcon and the other that was mentioned, not that it made much difference to him.

That much insanity was too impossible to even think about!

"Okay okay, cut the chatter! Back to the topic." the redhead decisively cut the talk. "So, captain, what will it be? All out war, or the deal?" he offered both hands, squatting at Luffy's level since the rubber man had not moved for the entire time, which was surprising, considering his hyperactive tendencies .

The captain looked up at the others extended hands with another blank-stare. Redhead's right one was empty, while in the left one the pirate held a sheathed sword; handle pointing towards the right palm and ready to be unsheathed at anytime. All gazes of the strawhat crew turned towards both of the crouched pirates, waiting for the answer intently. They were ready to draw out their weapons and attack at a moments notice should Luffy decide to attack.

"_Fight!_" flashed through Zoro's mind, his hand inching towards Shuusui's handle. On top of having some unsorted bills with that redheaded pain-in-the-ass from an earlier encounter, he felt the insatiable urge to get back at that ass for daring to sneak past all of his walls. This would be a great opportunity to sort out everything. Not mentioning that oh so appealing challenge and fun which he hoped the redhead would provide during the actual clash. Even if the redhead excelled at being obnoxious and annoying, Zoro's professional pride and instincts kicked in again. Not everyone who happened to fight with a sword was worth of Zoro's interest, but his instinct somewhat promised him that this might be too amusing to be left out. Especially after that octopus's failure at Fishman's Island. And during the fight he was sure to keep the redhead busy enough to to make him finally shut up.

"_Deal, please, be it a deal_!" were the ideas of Nami, as she gripped her Clima Tact tighter, just in case. They needed to be as fast as possible, because her instincts were screaming "Storm!" for some time now. She knew better than to underestimate them. If the redhead _was_ strong enough to back up that threat, then being without their ship it would be unthinkable and leave them with little chance of survival on these harsh waters.

"_Oh almighty God, please, I beg you, let it be a deal so we don't need to fight with that scary lunatic pirate!_" Usopp prayed silently, his grip on Kuro Kabuto tightened so that his knuckles almost cracked. Through his past two years he had gained some courage, so he was not a complete coward anymore, but some things were still too much on him. Sometimes it felt like he was the only human in the strawhat crew full of monsters.

"_Fight._" Sanji smirked to himself with barely suppressed malice, tapping the tip of his shiny boot on the deck, remembering too clearly that the boat of this obnoxious, straight crazy, redhead was the cause behind the injury of his beloved Robin-chwan. Weird feeling aside, he was looking forward to sweet revenge and a lesson of good manners that he fully intended on teaching. But he might be a _bit_ merciful in exchange for biting the Marimo in the ass in such an amusing manner earlier_._

"_Deal ... Luffy, please ..._" Chopper plead inwardly, sharing Usopp's insecurity on top of his peaceful nature. But if Luffy ordered them to fight, even if he wasn't on the first line, he definitely would not let anyone be seriously wounded or, god forbid, killed! Even if that meant jumping straight into the sea again.

"_I wonder, how this fight will turn out? That would be interesting to know._" Robin mused for herself, smiling subtly. Thank goodness no one could hear her thoughts, since she was almost legendary inside the strawhat crew for her macabre presumptions and speculations the she told out in a straight and calm manner. This particular thought would have undermined the moral of even the most secure members. However, her morbid predictions never really tuned out to be true. But you couldn't be too sure on that every time.

"_We can't let Sunny go down just like that! A deal would be better than a direct encounter for sure._" Franky stated to himself. He worried for his child. The blue-haired shipwright just couldn't bear it if anyone would harm his nakama in any way, which also applied to the Sunny. An enraged cyborg was everything but nice. Silently he steeled himself for a possible clash.

"_Yohohoho, maybe I should write a new piece, 'Silence before the storm'!_" Brook chimed, preparing for the battle, in his thoughts that were constantly running towards composing music. His soul of an artist kept bugging him even in the afterlife.

Uneasy silence affected the musician in an interesting way. It was framed by the sound of wild waves, beating loudly towards the Sunny's hull, together with whistling wind in the sails that pounded hard into the ears of everyone present. During the course of the passionate debate, no one but Nami had noticed the storm coming. Right now, it was more than ready to hit in full force.

When Luffy put his hand of top of his hat, shifting it out of his eyes, still bearing that unreadable blank expression, everyone felt like an overly taunt string. Everyone knew that if Luffy choose to fight, they must be as fast as possible to minimize the possibility of any damage done to them. If the things turned sour, weapons needed to be prepared to strike, appendages ready to hit, abilities available for immediate use.

Luffy's dark brown eyes met with the green one that patiently waited in expectation for just a second. The choice had been made. One rubber hand inched dangerously close to both of the offerings. Nami subconsciously stiffed a breath and Usopp's knees even stopped their rattling for that second.

"Deal." The rubber palm firmly squeezed its opposite piece and both faces lit up with wide, understanding grins and pleasure, followed by many sighs of relief. And maybe two, just a liiiitle bit, disappointed grunts as the hand with the sword safely dropped down.

Blinding lighting from the sky, followed by deafening thunder confirmed the deal was struck.

* * *

_**Illustration:** none planned for now_

* * *

_I hope you had at least half of the fun, while reading past two chapters, as I had during the writing. Looking at how they turned out in the end, I realized, that I'm really screwing with characters in a nasty manner ... naughty, naughty me! I'm beginning to pity the Strawhats for being unlucky to catch my attention :D._

_Jitt_


	4. 04: Brief stop in the running time

_Many thanks to __**SadEcho**__, for holding such patience with me and overall support ;)_

_I don't own One Piece, just like to mess with characters in my own way._

* * *

_**Warnings**: none_

* * *

_When the Strawhats are busy sailing through the storm, it_ _offers some space for inner musing of the black passenger, about the recent events__._

* * *

Flashes of light from the sky illuminated the sadly demolished city behind the window, where water strokes formed their paths down the crystal clear glass, one of the tiny amount of windows in the whole city that had been spared the destruction. The spacious room painted in white, and decorated with golden details, faded into gray shadow when the storm clouds covered the usually bright blue sky and shining sun. Five men were sitting in the middle of this room on comfortably looking sofas and chairs, but no one moved nor anyone made a sound. Only the silent drizzling of raindrops on the window glass disturbed the uneasy silence of the room.

Creaking of the huge door cut through the dark atmosphere as a nervous marine, dressed in pinkish white uniform, bowed down between door jamb before hastily making his path towards the sitting quintet. With another bow he offered a list of paper on the silver plate, and as soon as one of the men took it he backed away as fast as his legs allowed him to before the door closed again.

Seeing the reader crumple the paper into a ball with anger their fist, the others judged that it wasn't the desired information they sought.

"They lost the subject's trace at the end of the undersea path leading to the New World." a bald man with a huge white mustache announced, his voice trembling with anger.

"I think that clearly stated his answer to our proposition. It reminds me of someone similar, almost twenty years ago. Though that time it was considerably less violent, and in the end, that person accepted. Those two hold some surprising similarities."

"That's unfortunate, but I don't think we have lost this opportunity completely. We must carefully decide what to do now, since this is such a delicate matter. Every move we make from now on will be even more dangerous than up till now. The New World is where _he_ is residing."

"We can't afford to go into open war with _him_ right now. After the Marineford incident, with all the consequent events around the world, marines aren't in the state to take _him_ head on right now. A possible success of all-out war is too unsure to be risked. Others might take the opportunity to attack, but they could choose to stay back as well."

"I warned you. Those kind of men means danger, as they continually prove with their actions. We should be glad we don't need to deal with that female, since they are rumored throughout history as a complete disasters. Remember that Portgas girl, she was the cause of one of the severest attacks towards the World Government."

"This _is already_ a disaster. And will grow even bigger, if those two make contact, _he_ will get to know! They _can't_ meet at _any_ cost!" the first one, who spoke, rose their voice again, irritated and maybe a little bit alarmed at such a possibility.

"Still, there is no proof that those two are related. Though if he came to the world in the middle of the sea, he might escape our sight. He even downright deny the relationship with_ him_."

"Running around, pulling out the same quirks and shenanigans like _him,_ and ridiculing marines and World Government at the same time isn't proof enough? Together with those rumors that are steadily spreading through the world? He can deny what he wants but it's obvious that they are related! Even voices from the marines remember the beginning of the Golden pirate's era and clearly remember _his_ rise in power. All of those marines agree, that they _must_ be related! Otherwise it would not be be possible!"

"Those are just rumors! There is no proof!"

"Gentlemen, calm down. Admiral Akainu directly requested the re-distributing of his wanted poster with a raised bounty. Personally I think the suggested amount is more than accurate, given the danger he holds towards the World Government and the world itself, taking into the consideration of his actions, especially the recent ones."

"Those sequence of events were quite unfortunate. No one could predict something like that, and with that delay in communication ..."

"They still don't have better photo?" a blonde young man frowned with distaste, looking at the rough sketch and blurry picture beside it. "Maybe they should change the photographer if he can't even take a picture of one pirate."

"I think its a willful act towards us. He thinks he can play with us like cat and mice. But soon, he will discover, who is the mouse is here. As for the announced name .. I suggest to leave it like this. The last thing we need right now is to alert _him._ The later _he_ knows, the better for us. It will bring up some complications, but it's better this way for now."

"Like parent, like child. Just like with Fire Fist. Former Fleet admiral Sengoku should have reported his relation with Gold Roger much sooner. It would have probably saved us a lot of problems. Thank God, in the end it turned out like it did. One threat less is better than none less. We can thank God that this time we are more lucky with such a matter."

"But regarding the future threat ... after rejecting the proposal, and the recent events, I don't fear saying that there is a growing and suitable candidate that is probably enough to shake the power ratio within the New World a bit. In the end, it might be good for us, if he gives the Yonkos a headache or a cause to wipe each other out, as well as bad, if he undermines our authority there even further. Only time will tell which one it will be, but I can't see that far; it is all black to me. Though these are just a few of the many unsure possibilities."

Uneasy silence claimed the room again as the men were shot glances towards each other.

"Voice your suggestions." the eldest of the men spoke out in a ceremonial tone.

With another exchange of glances, one of the men finally spoke out in a loud and serious tone.

"Second star speaking: Agree with the suggested bounty and matter of name. Further, I suggest to wipe the perpetrator from the earth the moment the marines will have a chance, even if that means mobilizing the all of the marines, despite the original plan. The danger is far too big to let it carry on any further."

"Third star speaking: Agree with the suggested bounty and matter of name. Further, I suggest to keeping up with the original plan, despite recent events. His value in this matter offers too great of an opportunity to be swept away like this. We can kill him later."

"Fourth star speaking: Agree with the suggested bounty and matter of name. Further I suggest to keeping up with the original plan. His rejection is unfortunate and actions are highly unexpected, but as long as he holds the desired value, I object against killing him. As Third said, we can kill him later, at anytime."

"Fifth star speaking: Agree with the suggested bounty and a matter of name. Further I suggest killing him at the first opportunity, despite his value. The dangers of future events are too severe and great to be overlooked and risked. At the current state of things, we can't afford to continue with the accepted plan."

"First star speaking: Agree with the suggested bounty and a matter of name. In the current state of affairs, I suggest to try and carry out the accepted plan. _His_ recent whereabouts were reported from the middle of the New World, which gives us a little bit of time before it will become too dangerous. Keep him alive, for now." the man stated in ceremonial tone. "In summary: All of us agreed to the request of Fleet admiral Akainu in the matter of the bounty poster. Three of us agreed with carrying out the accepted plan, until it becomes too dangerous. Two of us suggested killing the subject on the spot." the man cleared his throat before continuing, "As for our composited decision ... The bounty poster will be re-distributed along with the rise in bounty to the suggested amount. The Plan will be carried out, for now. Ban all information about the recent event to avoid them from leaking out through the media. If something unexpected happens again, we will discuss it again and see if a change in decision is necessary." The First star tapped on the small table in the middle of group, followed by all four others, some of them reluctantly, but in the end, every one agreed with the decision.

Knocking on the door disturbed the quintet, a marine hastily brought another report with desired ministrations. Two of the men couldn't suppress incredulous quirk of eyebrow at highly unusual color of that uniform. As soon as the nervous marine disappeared again, one of the Stars read the report and visibly paled.

"Gentlemen, it's unfortunate, but I suggest reconsidering our previous decision. Strawhat Luffy, one of the perpetrators of Marineford incident, who has been seen two days ago at Sabaody Archipelago along with eight other people, who has been confirmed as the real one, was briefly seen at the opposite side of the Red Line which means, he's currently in the roughly same location, with his crew, as our problem that we were discussing a minute ago." the Fifth Star announced, looking at the paper.

"I agree with reconsidering." the Third Star spoke with heavy sigh. "If those two will meet, I suspect the world we know, will come to the end."

* * *

"ACHOOO!" Two sneezes and one thud, followed right after the handshake, as two heads came hard together, startling the strawhats a bit. For a second, the redhead tensed as a silent wave of renewed pain rolled through his whole body. Redhead tasted a bit of iron on his own tongue, masking it all as the result of a sneeze combined with a head crash.

"Ow ... looks like someone is badmouthing the both of us behind our backs." the redhead rubbed his own bruised forehead, sneezing again. "And pretty badly, at least in my case."

"Why thats not surprising, I could wonder." Zoro grunted out in sarcasm along with his usual grumpiness again, determined to keep a good eye on their dark passenger they just picked up. No one from the strawhat crew questioned Luffy's decisions as they willed to obey them and agree. But sometimes it wasn't bad to fill in for their captain's carelessness with their own caution. Which was probably a good idea in this case too.

"Shishishishishi!" Luffy giggled, grinning from ear to ear, as he rubbed his own nose before jumping up onto his feet.

"Luffy! Go under the deck! Sanji, Zoro! Furl the sails and keep them tied down at all costs!" Nami immediately snapped into ordering mode as soon as the rubber boy moved. "Franky, hold the helm, I'll get the coordinates right away! Usopp! Tie everything on board so we won't loose anything during the storm! Everyone will keep a lifeline around them! Luffy and the others, go under the deck! Luffy, that comes for your too, do you understand?!" It was clear, that mikan-head is in her element, but temporarily forgetting the newest passenger. Still, she doubted, that telling Luffy third time in the row, what he was supposed to do, might not be enough.

"Whew ... that went far better than expected." the redhead sighed inwardly, sweeping the sweat off his forehead when the strawhats, guided by Nami's barking of orders, spread like flock of sparrows that someone just shot a bullet into. "... which could only mean, that my sheer luck has just run out. Great." the pirate grimaced on the inside. Looking with a hint of curiosity at how the ship was being prepared for the storm, the redhead took the opportunity to sort out his own thoughts. It wasn't the first time he had pulled off this highly risky maneuver, but it was the attempt with the best result ever. Marines aside, this was the second crew that had come to agree on terms without yielding a real fight. Though definitely the first one ever that had managed to run over the red-haired pirate's vessel at open sea by accident. This was something the redhead still didn't quite get yet. How exactly could that happen? Although with total beginner behind the steering, anything was quite possible. Sometimes things just need to be experienced in your own skin, and this collision was most probably one of those cases.

This made the pirate slightly frown. The aftereffects of events from two days previous were already taking their toll on the redhead's body. Though it was expected to be more severe, it wasn't the most pleasant feeling either. Abused muscles literally burned with the slightest movement; complaining about the harsh treatment towards them. Maybe swimming in this condition wasn't exactly the best idea either. Muscle fever always hurt like hell, including those few acquired burns, bruises, and cuts from that latest adventure aside.

Light drizzling slowly changed into heavy rain, creating a veil that was almost impossible to see through. It was as if the New World wanted to deter the newcomers before they ventured too far inside, or maybe this part of the Grand Line was too shy to show itself openly. Sweeping water from their face, long, nimble fingers touched the red strands that still stuck at left side of the darkened face, resulted them being swiped at with a bit of annoyed grunt. "And I have been wondering, why the hell I can't see crap." The redhead briefly tucked the dampened fringe behind their ear.

Fast flapping of wings from close above hinted that the falcon had decided to change its location. It didn't surprised the redhead pirate too much since it was already that time of a day. Wiggling inside the faded shirt, using it as under improvised cover, the falcon crawled under the cloth that was drenched by the rain in exchange for a comfortable place to sleep.

"Sleep well, you little kleptomaniac." the pirate whispered softly as the falcon cuddled itself to bare warm belly, falling into a deserved sleep. "And what now ..." the pirate muttered silently for their own ears as the sounds of a brawl reached over the rain. Quirking an eyebrow in shock, and hardly stiffing a laugh afterwards, the redhead watched as Usopp and Chopper tried to stuff Luffy inside of the ship, despite the attempts of said man to do otherwise.

"Luffy! You need to stay inside!" Usopp tried to block the door and reason with his captain, but maybe he would have better luck with the door instead of the stubborn boy.

"I don't want to! I want to be on deck!" the rubberman huffed, trying to sneak past the sharpshooter at almost at any cost.

"You can't, Nami said waves are too high and dangerous during the storms!" the little doctor held captain from behind, only his horns visible with what the redhead assumed as one of the Zoan transformations. "If they splash over, you will drown!"

"Nggggh..." Even without words it was more than enough for a clear answer.

"Luffy!" Usopp yelled out, almost being pushed out from between the door jamb where he had successfully jammed himself.

"Luffy, Nami-san wouldn't be very pleased to see you on deck right now. Do you want to make her angry again?" Robin flashed a wink at the rubberman, sprouting many of her arms to help her nakamas with the hard task. During every major storm it was the same, almost one of many rituals held by the strawhat crew. At least from the time when Luffy was swept overboard by incoming wave that had almost resulted in the captain's death.

Said that, it worked almost like charm when the rubber boy stopped trying to push himself through impossibly tight place and instead pulled out a pout. He wanted to be on board like Franky, Sanji, Zoro and Nami, who were responsible for guiding the ship through storms since they weren't affected by salt water, which splashed over the board in regular intervals, something, that a devil fruit user wouldn't be ever able to pull off. It was the only reason why all anchors gathered down in the underbelly with Usopp acting as the "moral pillar" after he finished his task so that they did not feel discriminated. Though the sharpshooter's I-can't-be-on-board-during-the-storm-disease definitely helped to justify that matter. However, in the time of highest need the sharpshooter would pop up and do whatever was necessary to help out.

Surprised and amused by the scene full of interwined appendages, where no one could tell which ones belonged to who, the pirate twisted their head in slight disbelief. "Captain like hell," were the thoughts running through that head covered by red hair. "I wonder, how they are able to maintain themselves ... even anarchy would be some kind of status, but this isn't even that!" the pirate mused, trying to come with a logical explanation, but completely failing at it. "Maybe that mikan-head is the real captain ... ?" came a stray thought, despite conflicting with what the mikan-head stated about capitancy not so long ago.

Wood under the bare feet creaked almost in pain, as the waves mercilessly crashed into the hull, straining hard wood and making the ship shudder under such force. Redhead stopped in mid step, placing a palm on the white railing at the outer edge of the hull in an apologetic gesture.

"Forgive them since they don't know what the are doing ..." the pirate muttered with a distasteful click of the tongue at such abuse of a ship. Turning away from what had been happening on board, the redhead went to the back of deck to check if the ropes that still secured the little ship behind the larger vessel that had gone unnoticed by the busy crew. It was weird, being accused to carelessness so often, and now to be a witness to such careless behavior at first hand. "They know nothing about me, yet their so-called captain immediately accepted me on board. They don't even pay attention to what I am doing. Crazy crew ... Either that or they are strong as hell. Maybe it is just plain luck and insanity. Guess I don't really want to know which one is the right reason." The redhead shuddered a little at that thought and realization. Firmly fastening the ropes, which were tied around the back railing, before he made the first appearance.

Sitting back on deck to rest his back against the railing, the redhead tried to suppress the excitement from such a beautiful storm. Every time it was a great opportunity to test out ones limits, to go further at along that edge between life and death, to experience that thrilling adrenaline rush held most exclusively for life and death fights. The more danger the situation held, the better it was.

Like with the Greenie, as the redhead nicknamed poor Zoro. Though at that one particular moment they had been dangerously close to loosing their heads, it provided surprising and unexpected amusement and excitement. Not only with the promise of a great fun during the actual fight, judging by the gut feeling the green-haired person induced in redhead, but the temptation to tease the grumpy swordsman was bugging the pirate even now. Such easy prey to this kind of humor just couldn't go unnoticed or spared of at least one attempt, but possibly not the future ones.

Pangs of guilt stabbed the redhead's heart when a memory of their first encounter flow through the pirate's mind. It wasn't so very surprising to see the swordsman so pissed off after .. well, the past string of events they went through together, despite Zoro's involuntariness, but it was promptly silenced and pushed out.

"Serves him right. He shouldn't have stared at me like that." the redhead grunted out in satisfaction, feeling fully justified in what had happened. Perhaps an apology couldn't hurt, but the pirate pushed that thought into a "maybe later" shelf for possible future use, letting memories flowing from the mind and further from the past to the present to one meeting, an unexpected and kind of surprising and shocking for both sides, and right into the latest adventure that had followed shortly after.

Though the redhead didn't want to go to such lengths, it was by pure luck in the chain of misfortunes that had messed up the pirate's life from almost the very beginning. Definitely unexpected action, but that was exactly why it was a success, in a sense. Moment of surprise worked like miracle, when pulled out in the right time, despite it was very difficult in terms of precision of timing, basically redhead considered it as a half of success of strategies. No wonder marines were freaking out, when it came to a clash. But maybe _something else_ was also at fault.

"Proposition like hell ... " the pirate muttered with distaste as the memory flow went to a certain point. "They must be insane to even think about that after all. I hope this explained my opinion to them more clearly, since I really don't want to think about another way to show them what I think of that theater right now." the redhead grunted, pulling the sword out from it's sash and placing both weapons across crossed legs, ignoring the pouring rain and occasional sweep of salty, cold waves across the desk. Not even the barking of angry orders from a female voice disturbed the rare moment of peace aboard the enemy's ship. They had greater problems at hand; they couldn't reach the back of the deck through the howling of wind whipped up by the violent storm.

Redhead silently smiled, replaying the recent adventure again when the pirate thought about the newest souvenir, a hard-earned valuable prize, currently hidden inside the rubber emergency sack around the small ship, despite not being able to swallow the bitter aftertaste. But the belief, that with this had been the right choice was felt again, stronger than the sadness and anger coming from the first cause of that recent event.

As the memories flowed further to the present, the dark, nimble, and long fingers unconsciously touched the grayish-green oval pendant hanging around the scarf covered neck. It was from one of the most surprising moments of fortunately unfortunate (or unfortunately fortunate? Redhead couldn't decide which one it was) encounter.

_Shanks_. The familiarly unfamiliar name, which the redhead had not heard very many times during past travels, since most people referred to that man with his notoriously known epithet. Time to time the redhead was called that epithet, in what seemed like an honest mistake. In the end, it wasn't that surprising, since a certain similarity in features couldn't be denied, but hearing his less known, real, name from the mouth of a random teenager was suspicious.

With very squinted eyes, the redhead could imagine some similarities in look between raven-haired boy and the notorious Yonko, but making any assumptions just from that one, very old on top of that, picture, would be a foolish thing to do. But the redhead couldn't suppress the feeling from the way the boy had blurted that name out, like he must have had some kind of close relationship with the Yonko. And there was only one theory in the pirate's mind that the redhead classified as highly unlikely, but still possible.

"Maybe he has a son after all ... which means ..." the redhead muttered in serious tone, lost in deep thought about possibilities and their consequences.

Faint wiggling inside of the black shirt disturbed the mind train and reminded the pirate of it's usual role during this time of day. Deciding to fulfill it properly, the redhead huddled further into the drenched yukata, sitting straight with both swords within reach, ready to be pulled out anytime, and patiently waited for the watch to change. Continuing to trying and stomach everything, all that occurred inside the redhead and were assumptions from those raging thoughts.

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_**Illustration**: none (not planning any for this chapter for now)._

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_Back again with a new chapter :) Maybe not the strongest one, but there are weak pieces in every chain. It took a bit longer than expected and it's a bit shorter than before, but I hope you will enjoy it nevertheless :) I'll begin to work diligently at the next chapter to pull it out earlier than this one._

_I know that I'm throwing around too many uncertain informations which might be confusing, but don't worry, everything will be explained in one way or another at the right time :) Building the base of story is important than revealing everything on the spot ;)_

_Reviews and constructive criticism is highly appreciated, it helps me grow and further enhance my writing :)_

_Thanks for reading :)_

_Jitt_


	5. 05: Collisions to be expected

_Without _**SadEcho****_, _**_there would be nothing! Really! I swear! Since she enfulgs me with such doses of courage :)_

_Do not own One Piece, just love to mess with characters in my own way._

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_**Warnings:** Minor foul language, tiny bit of adult's suggestion (if you squint really hard ;))_

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_Who would have thought, what kind of mess could be invoked by just __one innocent question?_

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"What a storm ... New World's weather is really different from the Paradise's." Nami sighed in exhaustion as she dropped into a chair in the galley, dripping and slightly shivering from the cold, heavy rain. It took some time, but the Sunny was finally able to pass through the storm's core and even if the sea was still wild with heavy rain pouring hard down onto the deck, at least they weren't in immediate danger. The navigator was silently thankful that Franky had implemented that fantastically useful autopilot, which erased the need of having someone at the helm all the time. During an emergency it wasn't exactly the best solution to use it, but when the weather was stable, it helped a lot, like in this case.

"Dry yourselves with warm towels and then wrap up into blankets, so you won't suffer from hypothermia!" Chopper ran wildly around worrying and bringing more towels and blankets, pilling them up. "And change your clothes immediately! Sanji, can you make something fast and warm afterwards? Like chicken soup or something?" The little doctor was in his element, worrying about his nakama's health, trying to pull out the best solution possible, even if it was just a matter of not catching a cold.

"Sure, I'll whip something up right away." Sanji nodded from under his towel, hastily drying his blonde hair ".. so my sweet Nami-chwan will be all warm and cozy again!" the cook noodled in his usual lovey-dovey dance around the exhausted navigator, head still covered with his towel, when his blue eye spotted an all too familiar green head coming through the slit between the door and jamb. "Oi, Marimo!"

"Hn?" Zoro peeked into the room, when his face was hit straight on with a folded towel.

"Dry yourself, before you make Chopper freak ou ... ***SMASH*** ... t." A thick blanket, so conveniently close to swordsman's hand, flew across the room, hitting the blonde cook on the back of his head, smashing it into the nearby wall.

"You should wrap yourself up, so you won't start coughing, dartboard brow." The swordsman grinned in apparent satisfaction over the successful hit. "But no one would be able to distinguish whether it's the cold's fault, or one of those annoying nicotine sticks of yours anyway."

"Mind your own business!" Sanji screamed at Zoro's answer, throwing the blanket back, but the swordsman swiftly dodged, so instead of him it hit the poor cyborg who just entered the gallery too.

"Pillow war!" Luffy screamed, jumping from the cards he had been playing with Usopp, Brook, and formerly Chopper too, grabbing another one of the blankets and mercilessly throwing it at Usopp. Too bad Robin was reading in the way and instead of the sharpshooter it was the dark-haired woman who disappeared under the improvised cover along with her book, that she had been reading the whole time.

"Luffy, you stupid shitty rubber head! Look what you are doing, what if Robin-swan had been hurt?!" the cook immediately snapped at the captain. But instead of guilty look, he got another direct hit with a blanket and within a few seconds the room was full of flying towels and bed sheets. Nami decided to take immediate cover under the table, slightly wondering, how Chopper had managed to bring so many of them in such a short time.

Speaking of the little doctor, while everyone was suddenly enjoying the friendly all-out brawl in the underbelly, Chopper hesitantly tiptoed through the thick veil of rain over the Sunny's desk, looking for one person, which hadn't been heard from since the moment Sunny had appeared within the storm.

There, sitting peacefully and calmly, almost looking like sleeping, the redhead was sitting with crossed legs, swords over the lap, in a position that reminded Chopper of some kind of meditating monk. Completely ignoring the harsh weather, despite being drenched to the bone, and probably suffering from the cold wind, from the outside it really looked like the pirate didn't mind the whims of the weather at all.

Carefully studying the sitting person, the reindeer opened his mouth a few times before closing it, unsure about the best way of approaching. Something about that person terrified him, instincts from his former herbivorous time were screaming at him to stay on guard and as far away as possible from this being at all cost.

It wasn't the fear of being called a monster again, now that he had his nakamas, he could care less about what other people said about him, nor the fear of rejection or ignorance. It was more of a subconscious feeling of grave danger, which he had experienced quite few times in his short life, mostly in encounters with his natural predators in his past reindeer's times. Not only then, but the first time he had seen Zoro excited in the middle of the battle invoked the same kind of feeling. It had made him fear the green-haired swordsman for a few first weeks until he realized the kind of heart, that beat under that harsh and intimidating exterior.

But this was different. While Zoro was downright scary, invoking the feeling of _exactly what would_ happen to you the moment you happened to get at the wrong side of his swords, this was like his exact opposite. It was that uncertainty about what really was hidden under that calm, peaceful, and careless facade, giving off the vibe of that type of unpredictability where almost everything could technically happen while not giving any clear indication until the last possible second. Still, Chopper was sure, that he was the only one, who could probably feel it at all, given his animal instincts that even the Hito Hito no Mi wasn't able to erase. Maybe Luffy was able to feel it too, given his sharp instincts, but in that case someone had to teach the rubber captain the meaning of fear itself for him in the first place.

"Need something?" the redhead asked calmly with a smile, looking at the little reindeer with a mixture of curiosity and expectation, knowing well about the reindeer's secret observation.

The sudden sound caught the doctor off guard, temporarily confusing his thoughts, but also nudging him nearer towards his doctor's worrying side inside of his head. Opening his mouth to voice whatever was on his mind, Chopper lifted his head and stepped out from his hiding.

A chilling wave of shock rolled throughout the poor reindeer as he jumped a few steps back. Falling on his rear, gasping for air, and clearly feeling the cold sweat under his thick fur that was able to withstand even the harshest rain, when his round eyes met its piercing, almost cat-like counterparts. The intensity of that look was highlighted with its apparent unusual uneven coloring, enhanced by the fact that they rested against the dark olive tone of skin. In that split of a second, he was back in the Drum Kingdom, far behind his herd, staring directly into the eyes of a hungry predator.

_Green and blue. The little reindeer stood there, not even daring to breathe, as he watched the hungry wolve's odd eyes. It was fascinating to the point where he couldn't see anything else. Just those two merciless orbs of the predator, who had just picked him to be his next part of dinner. Saliva dripped from the powerful jaws, lined with sharp fangs, creating disgusting pools on the ground under the creature's chin. Low, deep, and throaty growls escaped from the predator, as it prepared to jump at the poor victim. Partially snapping from the dangerous fascination, the small reindeer backed unconsciously away, as the wolf leapt ..._

A sudden scream from the deck alarmed all of strawhats in the underbelly where the pillow war immediately came to an abrupt halt with the violent crash of a shutting door.

"Chopper?" Luffy tilted his head to the side with a mixture of curiosity and confusion as he was looking at the trembling reindeer, who clung to the abused door against his back with all the might he could summon.

"Oi, did you see a ghost?" Sanji frowned, looking at the completely terrified doctor, who seemed to be quite out of touch with reality at that moment, as he poked up his head, wrapped in a towel, from the kitchen.

"Uaaah! Ghost?! Where?!" Brook almost jumped up. "Sanji-san! Don't scare me like that! I almost jumped off my skin!" the skeleton yelled in a pretended anger towards the smirking cook. "Though I don't have any, being just a pile of bones! Yohohoho!" Even if it wasn't planned, Brook's jokes were still success as anyone couldn't suppress amused smirk.

But Brook's yelp seemed to have torn the poor reindeer out of whatever was going on through his scared mind. With a silent gasp, the doctor shoved himself shamelessly directly onto Zoro's chest, tackling the green-haired man to the ground. Slightly confused, the swordsman didn't know anything better to do than lightly pat the sobbing reindeer on the back in an attempt to calm down the poor scared creature.

"Chopper, what happened?" Nami asked worriedly with the utmost care, not wanting to startle the doctor even more as she squatted beside the duo.

"H... H ... He ..." Chopper sobbed, as the wave of fear finally rolled over, leaving him feeling unbearably embarrassed over his sudden realization; it was just a memory from the past, but also he was unable to instantly calm down and tell the crew what was on his mind.

"That bastard. What did he dare do to you?!" Zoro immediately growled, unconsciously sending waves of killing intent in the air, which earned him brief jab to the ribs from the irritated navigator.

"If you scare Chopper even more, I'll raise your debt again." Nami snapped harshly at Zoro's frowning expression, sending him clear warning. But despite situation, Chopper seemed to be calmed down a bit, though he was still hiccuping, trying to steady his own shallow breathing.

"What bastard?" Usopp was clearly confused about what's going on. "Who do you mean?"

"How many annoying, obnoxious redheads do we have on board?" the swordsman growled his question in irritation. It was enough that redhead fiend almost drowned Luffy and half of the crew, but now that pain in the ass dared to scare Chopper almost to death.

"Who do you think you are looking at ... ?"A dangerously low hiss escaped from irritated Nami when she realized that Usopp and Franky were looking right at her after Zoro's remark. Robin couldn't stiffed a giggle when both men slowly took a half step back, reacting to the murderous glare coming from the navigator.

"I think it's more of a orange ... " Franky muttered quietly towards Usopp, who viciously nodded his head in agreement.

"Not the slightest hint of red at all, really." the sharpshooter accented hastily, trying to avoid the suspicious glare from the navigator.

"Idiots." Sanji smacked his own forehead, looking at the scene. "How could you even think about something so insulting towards our Nami-swan?!" he yelled immediately, trying to guard the dignity of the navigator like a true gentleman.

"Oi, calm down." Zoro grunted, nudging Chopper slightly to express his concern, ignoring the quarrel behind his back "We won't let him harm you. Isn't that so, Luffy?" It was a useless question, but if it made the poor doctor feel better, Zoro was willing to ask for that effect. But his dark eyes glanced around the room with mounting confusion, frowning because the rubber captain was suddenly nowhere to be found.

* * *

"Uoooooh!" the sudden exclamation slightly startled the feasting pirate, who almost suffocated on a piece of raw fish in surprise. Though the feeling of another being coming close was clear, it was still unexpected to be ambushed by such a loud sound. "Sashimiiii!"

Staring with disbelief, and then immediately switching to sweat drop at the sight of the drenched black-haired boy with a bit too big straw hat, the redhead slowly continued to chew the piece of raw meat. It was kind of fascinating to look at the teenager who was currently drooling all over deck and emitting a whole galaxy of stars from the dark brown eyes set on the huge fish that was unfortunate enough to be splashed on board by a particularly high wave.

"Uh ... "the redhead gulped a bite down, uncertain of what to say. "Serve yourself, if you don't mind it ... being ... raw...?" the words slowly died down when Luffy literally dived into the dead fish and began gulping the meal down as if he hadn't eaten anything in half a year at least.

Noticing with another shock at how fast the black-haired boy proceeded to chomp on his dinner, the redhead slightly panicked. "Oi! I know I said you could have some, but _some_ doesn't mean _all_ of it!" he screamed, swiftly snatching a few last parts, keeping some for himself and his sleeping companion for a late dinner. Unable to help himself, the redhead simply stared with a slightly parted mouth at how the captain practically _inhaled _the huge fish in a matter of seconds, leaving only thoroughly clean bones.

"Mmh Mmnhkh Dh Lhmmfh. Mm gmnma mh mhh Phmhth Khmngh!"

"Eh ... what?" The redheaded pirate had doubted it was even possible to feel any more confused, but after hearing those jumbled words he was proved wrong. His own being required plenty of food quite regularly. Sometimes, there were even comments from the bystanders that he ate more than a lot. But this was definitely like looking at the worlds record of speed eating, and probably the one about _devouring_ the largest amount of food in the shortest time possible while the rubber boy was at it.

"I'm Monkey D Luffy. I'm gonna be the Pirate king!" the raven-haired boy proudly announced with an impossible wide grin when he finally gulped the huge mouthful down his throat.

"Uh... oh," the redhead nodded slightly in apparent disbelief ,"sure you are. The third one in a row." Only thanks to Luffy's innocence, the teenager completely missed the obvious sarcasm dripping from the statement.

"Thanks for the meal, Odd-eye." The redhead incredulously lifted one eyebrow at such nickname. Sure, it was weird and it kind of sucked having differently colored eyes that stood out even more given the dark skin creating a nice contrasting background. Just a very few people had been able to take this difference with such ease like this interesting boy.

"Your welcome, I guess?" the redhead mused, looking uncertainly at the grinning so-called captain. While the sudden squint of the dark brown eyes at the dinner's leftovers certainly didn't escaped his sharp eyes, the redhead chose not to comment it. "Thanks for letting me hitch a ride." the pirate answered with a sheepish tone, not really knowing what to think about all that. But it felt right to at least thank him for that kindness, even if it was a bit forced.

"Saaaanjiiiii!" the rubber man rose his voice to call of his beloved cook, leaving the grimacing redhead rubbing at his own assaulted ears.

Another few sets of stomping feet grabbed the redhead's attention when the whole crew came out into the harsh weather to see what their captain was doing there. They greeted the scenery with a look of disbelief; the redhead, who stopped in the middle of chewing, stared at the group with frown, which met a look of confusion coming from the crew.

"If you wanted to take a bite too, you are a bit late." the redhead muffled through another mouthful with a shrug, assuming this crew is probably short of supplies and pretty hungry, given the fact they grouped around like this.

"Luffy, you shitty idiot! Do you need to devour everything, that looks barely edible?!" Sanji was the first one to get over the picture. "It was completely raw!"

"It wouldn't be, but I don't think you would appreciate if I set the ship on fire." the redhead uttered with mounting annoyance. For his current taste, the deck was becoming a much too crowded and loud.

"Shishishishi!" Luffy grinned in his usual, impossibly wide manner, rubbing apologetically at the back of his neck "The snack was good, but Sanji ... will you make me meat for dinner? That kind on the bone!" The captain asked shamelessly, as if he didn't just devour a heap of meat right now.

"Snack ... yeah, like hell." Redhead commented sarcastically. "That was my dinner, you idiot! But I agree, it needed at least a bit of chilli, though." he mused quietly to himself, rubbing at his stomach, knowing too well that in a matter of minutes it would start growling again. Usually, he didn't have a problem sharing his food, but he and the so-called Luffy obviously parted in ways of opinion at the meaning of "sharing".

Promptly, he smacked away the secretly-inching-hand of the rubber captain towards the leftovers. The redhead emitted a quiet, low, almost animalistic, growl in warning. Poor Chopper, whose ears were the sharpest ones, right after Brook's, instantly tried to press himself through Zoro's chest at that sound. Thankfully the skeleton didn't freak out like the small doctor did.

"Oi, whatever you are doing, stop that right now." Zoro hissed menacingly at the sitting redhead, who promptly returned the glare back. It left the swordsman completely unfazed, given the fact that they had met before, and also he didn't really pay attention to looks.

"Like what, can't I even quietly eat the leftovers from my own dinner that this bottomless pit just devoured for me?" he threw back at the swordsman in a biting, annoyed tone, sliding his glare towards the happily grinning, stuffed teenager.

"I would say, if you stopped emitting those interesting sounding growls, it might work out." Brook pointed out nonchalantly, peeking from behind Franky.

"Waaah!?" The uneven pair of eyes almost bulged out with a mixture of disbelief, shock and surprise when the skeleton spoke out loud. Redhead literally sprang from its sitting position on deck and into a squat on the top of railing, trying to balance out his own equilibrium by swaying his arms back and forth. Opening and closing his mouth like fish thrown out of water, in a matter of seconds the redhead switched from a look of shock and disbelief right to a frown that contained the curiosity of a cat. A pretty morbid one, given the fact he was staring at the skeleton.

Very slowly, he pointed his second finger towards Brook's forehead and cautiously began to close their distance. During that process he even left his squatting position, standing on the deck again with pure curiosity etched into his sharp features.

"What ...?" Brook took a step back at the sudden change of behavior. But it looked like the redhead was unaffected by his voice this time.

Concentrating on his own finger, now with his tongue sticking slightly out, the redhead moved his pointer finger an inch closer to Brook's head. And then ... the redhead slightly poked the skeleton right between his void eyes, immediately retracting his hand.

"Holy shit." the redhead breathed out with a laugh. "How is ... eh ..." the redhead stopped in mid sentence, thinking about something, while crew stared at him, obviously questioning his sanity again. Ignoring weird glares and looks, the redhead turned back to Brook and with a sheepish smile he asked a surprising question. "Sorry about that, but can you tell me, whether you are male or female?" Redhead rubbed at the back of his neck in an apologetically puzzled gesture. "I don't want to call you 'it', you know ..."

"Yohohoho!" Brook chimed in apparent amusement at that question and its tone "I'm a man to the bone! Though I don' t have a ..."

***SLAM*** A shiny polished boot slammed the poor skeleton into the deck, interrupting him before he could finish.

"Sanji!" Nami squeaked at her sudden loss of hearing when the cook briefly covered her ears.

"You idiotic shitty skeleton, don't you even dare to end that sentence anywhere near my sweet Nami-swan! Her virginal ears don't deserve to be stained with such a word!" the cook screamed at Brook, who looked right now like real pile of bones, slightly twitching from sudden assault. Thank God Sanji struck the poor musician on the shoulder and not squarely over the head. That might damage Brook's afro and send the skeleton into a ... well .. not so nice mood.

***SMACK*** A severely irritated Nami, whose cheeks began to be tinted with red, grounded the crazy gentleman to the deck alongside Brook.

"You owe me a hundredth thousand of belli more for this! And don't you dare to say that thing about my ears ever again!" The navigator was now blushing heavily, screaming at the poor cook, irritated and embarrassed at the same time.

"Shishishi!" Luffy grinned like a madman, smacking Brook over his boney back "Zoro doesn't have one too!"

"Luffy!" the swordsman yelped out in clear embarrassment, red all over his face "How can you say that!?"

"It's true!" the teenager pouted, defending himself.

"No, it's not!"

"It is!"

"It's not!"

"Stop it, both of you!" the bark from the irritated navigator set both males immediately back in line.

"It is." Luffy muttered quietly, still pouting. How could Zoro say that? It was true... he didn't have one ...

"Luffy is right, you don't have ..." Chopper beeped quietly, standing up for his captain.

"You too, Chopper? How the hell can a doctor say I don't have a ..." Zoro began his grumpy, irritated growling.

"Marimo! Don't you dare!" Sanji jumped from the deck, aiming his kick right at Zoro's head. Thankfully, Chopper managed to jump from swordsman's chest and onto Franky's shoulder, hiding behind the cyborg's neck. In the opposite way again.

"You are the one who doesn't have one! Even Nami is more of a man than you, idiot cook!" the swordsman yelled, promptly attacking again and within seconds. There was no way to tell which appendage belongs to who as they were tangled into an unintelligible whirl of legs and swords.

"I have a SUPER one!" Franky stroke his usual pose, crashing both his square forearms together with metallic clang, adding his own share to the mounting chaos.

"No, you don't have one either!" Luffy was literally jumping in his sitting position, clearly amused by the mess he managed to make. "But Usopp and Sanji do, and cool ones!" he pointed out at the sharpshooter, which earned him a brief glare from the enraged swordsman.

"If the captain is saying that, it's most likely the true, dear Marimo." Sanji smirked in the middle of their fight.

"Shut up, you shitty cook, or you will be short of your own very soon!" the swordsman yelled back, pissed off beyond belief.

Blinding lighting flashed through the deck, leaving most of the strawhat crew lying helplessly down, with interesting streaks of smoke coming from their burned-to-a-crisp bodies.

"Scaryyyy..." Usopp crawled away with terrified Chopper attached to his face, as they were the only two lucky enough to be unaffected by Nami's lightning attack. And the redhead too surprisingly.

"Finally, it's quiet..." the navigator sighed in relief, disassembling her Clima tact before sheathing the pieces into the holster at her hip.

"What the ... fuck ..." The redhead's jaw dropped down at the fascinating dynamic of relationships inside this highly unusual crew. He certainly didn't expected that one innocent question would start this crazy chain of events. But one thing was for sure; he really wouldn't want to piss off that mikan-head for real, looking at how easily she took down almost her whole crew with a single attack.

".. beard .." Brook beeped cautiously, finally snapping from his brief unconscious and burned state right into slight depression since no one wanted to hear his skull joke. "I meant .. beard ..." Luffy had been right on target, and Chopper, with his cute innocence, too.

In that moment, all the conscious strawhats sweat dropped, like the well coordinated group they were, almost at the same second at the musician's revelation. The redhead couldn't suppress a quiet chuckle of amusement. This crew would be one hell of a fun!

Torn from his inner musing, the redhead was unpleasantly surprised by a high-pitched irritated sound, that hurt the ears of everyone present. Pissed off beyond belief, the falcon crawled its way out of the redhead's shirt and began angrily whistling, at a frequency that was especially created to be a most annoying sound for human (and reindeer's) ears, clearly venting its anger from being waken up so unceremoniously from its precious sleep.

Redhead grimaced when the tirade began, instantly pushing his fingers inside of his ear canals to guard his eardrums to try and oppose that sound, but ultimately failed. Through that intense whistling no one could hear their own words even if they wanted to. After a few agonizing seconds the falcon finally let out everything that was in its heart, throwing angry glares at everyone present. Opening one eye, the redhead realized, that the immediate danger of becoming deaf was finally over. He turned his uneven eyes to look with an uncertain expression at the irritated bird.

"Not that I understand what were you saying but ... guess, I'm sorry we woke you up?" he scratched at his head, messing the hair up in the process. "Ow!"

A well aimed peck at the redhead's nose was more than enough for an answer. When the falcon decided it was enough she climbed up on top of the red hair, claiming this head as its observatory.

"Guess I wasn't sorry enough." the redhead mused quietly, rubbing his stinging, abused nose with a thoughtful frown.

Light steps on the stairs acquired the attention of everyone, as Robin appeared at the top of staircase.

"I smelled something burning," she announced to everyone.

"Nami just turned half of the crew into crisps ..." Usopp whispered, not wanting to be electrocutioned too, finally peeling the scared Chopper off of his head.

"No, I'm certain that wasn't the case." Robin smiled. "I think it was coming from the kitchen ..."

"Oh fuck! The soup!" Sanji literally sprang to life from the deck and like lightning darted towards the kitchen. "You fucking redhead, you better pray that it didn't burn already, or I'll let you eat all of it!" he shouted angrily all the way until he disappeared inside the Sunny's belly.

Awkward silence spread through the Sunny's deck, as everyone was uncertain about what to say. One by one, the previously knocked out strawhats got to their feet, shifting their looks from one to another.

"I'm hungry! Let's eat!" Luffy squeaked with his usual dose of excitement, throwing both arms towards the sky, grinning from ear to ear. "Odd-eye, you come too! Sanji! I want meat!" he announced loudly, marching his way to the kitchen.

"Idiot ..." Nami sighed. But she was glad that the uneasy silence didn't last long. That was something that she kept letting her captain do. Luff managed to do just the right thing to snap everyone back into normality. Or at least something, that happened so regularly, so it could be called "normality".

"Interesting person." the redhead smirked, until he noticed Zoro's glare.

"Get going." the swordsman grunted, rubbing the soot off of his face from Nami's attack. If Luffy demanded the redhead's presence at food, someone had to make it happen.

"I already told you, I'm comfortable here." Redhead brushed it immediately off explaining why he wasn't there when the crew had returned from deck and into the underbelly.

"Like hell I'll let you out of my sight again. Get going." Zoro frowned even deeper, not giving the redhead the chance to complain. Or at least he thought so.

"I would also recommend you coming inside with us. There are plenty of warm blankets to spare and enough of hot delicious soup for everyone." Robin jumped into the conversation that threatened to turn out wrong again.

Carefully, the redhead weighted his options. He wasn't one who would go with possible enemies right into their lion's den when he didn't know what awaited him inside. But it was true, until now, that the crew had not really tried to harm him in any way. Zoro's reaction poking at his ego, aside. Maybe he was a bit paranoid ...

A low, growling sound of apparent hunger came from the redhead's stomach, causing its owner to deeply blush, despite his dark skin and his decision finally settled.

"Haaa, I don't really feel like bothering myself with reasoning with you right now," the redhead suddenly groaned, dropping his head down in defeat. "I think I might have use for that soup at least ..." he admitted reluctantly, shifting his eyes to the side in embarrassment at the betrayal of his own body.

* * *

"You are goddamn lucky it didn't go bad." Sanji growled around his cigar, as he served the hot steaming soup to the table.

"Is it my fault, that you abandoned it?" the redhead asked with an honestly confused expression, looking at the cook. The falcon was sitting at the edge of the table sharing a plate with its red-headed companion.

"He's right, stupid cook." Zoro smirked, pleased, it wasn't only him, who was just kicked to the ego. "You should have paid more attention to your cooking."

"Shut up shitty Marimo, or I'll cut out your path to sake ." Sanji smugly smirked towards the swordsman.

"That's pretty cruel you know," the slightly muffled sound came from behind Sanji, as the redhead had his head stuck inside one of the cupboards, obviously looking for something. How he had snuck past the cook without anyone noticing was a mystery.

"What do you think you are doing?" Sanji's eye began to twitch. He didn't want to be too rude towards the newcomer, but he wasn't exactly used to random redheads roaming through his beloved kitchen. The tension in his voice clearly hinted that the redhead better turn back and obediently sit at his designated place, unless he wanted to experience what Sanji had in store for such opportunities.

"Looking for chilli. Do you happen to have some by any chance?" the pirate asked, completely oblivious of the danger that had been steadily rising behind him, clearly asking for a good aimed punch to the jaw.

"... are you fucking kidding me?!" Sanji screamed, taking that answer as a personal insult. That pain-in-the-ass had not even tasted his soup and he dared to demand seasoning?! It was perfect! The soup was perfect!

Sanji's shiny boot came down without any kind of warning, fully intending to knock the redhead squarely over the head. But before the attack landed, Sanji felt a light touch of the outer edge of dark-skinned hand on the inner side of his calf that pressed into it with just enough strength to redirect his attack aside. Not wanting to crash into his own kitchen, the cook was forced to stop in the middle of the kick, slightly surprised at what happened. He wasn't attacking with full power, but this was weird.

"What the hell was that for?" Redhead frowned with obvious distaste. "Do you have any manners at all, attacking from behind with no warning?"

"You are the one without any manners at all!" Sanji screamed, red with anger like Zoro had been not so long ago, trying to kick the redhead again. But the perpetrator just jumped on the top of the kitchen table into a squat, avoiding Sanji's attack with ease.

"I wonder about that." the pirate grunted with a slight pout, rubbing at his own chin.

"_You_ ..." Sanji's visible eye bulged out in a rush of anger "You fucking algae-head, get off that _sacred_ table before I'll turn your shitty legs into fish food!"

Looking at the steaming cook, the redhead grumpily got off, shaking his head in confusion."What's so bad about the chilli? Should I asked for the pepper instead? ... but everything just tastes better with chilli ..." the pirate mused innocently, grunting under his own nose in confusion, as he proceed slowly back to his given place. At the last possible second he jumped forward, rolling over his shoulder to avoid another dangerous kick, crashing right into the wall in the galley that lead to the kitchen. Ass up, head down, and plastered in the said wall, the redhead watched as Robin and Nami tried to calm the enraged cook down. If it weren't for them, the redhead would have already been dead. Probably.

Silently observing the situation, if falcons could sweat drop, the bird would have done so.

"Hey, who's that anyway?" Usopp asked, partially confused and slightly shocked at all that had happened up till now. It was like the strawhats had just met their personal nemesis, who happen to _exactly_ know, how to literally set on fire anyone in its vicinity within the seconds.

"Dunno ..." Zoro grunted with his usual frown, pleased that he wasn't the only one to suffer from the redhead's sharp tongue. "Hey you!" he yelled towards the plastered pirate, interrupting him in his inner musing.

"Hn?" came the grunt from the newcomer, who obviously didn't feel bothered with the fact that he was turned upside down in a very undignified position.

"Who are you?" the swordsman asked sharply, demanding an immediate, truthful answer.

"Wanderer. Why?" The redhead slightly frowned. This kind of interrogation wasn't exactly his cup of tea. So he decided to stick with usual strategy. Partial truth is also the truth and they doesn't need to know it whole. And it wasn't like he was lying either.

"Like hell, but that's not what I meant." Zoro grimaced, reminding himself that if he didn't want to fall into the redhead's word trap again, he'd better ask directly. "At least tell us your name, when you so deliberately demanded to stick with us."

"It's polite to tell your name first, when you want to ask for someone else's." the redhead pouted, scolding the swordsman like a child, which made Zoro's forehead vein twitch dangerously again. "Anyway why does the name matter? I'm not interested in yours either. But if you are going to insist on it ... call me whatever you want, for all I care," the redhead shrugged the question off. Traveling almost alone held some dangers that were slightly lessened when traveling in a group. Aware of that, the redhead was pretty reluctant about running around, boasting his name to everyone he met. Not that it helped him stay out of problems at all, being the troublemaker he was.

"I'm Robin." The archaeologist decided to step in, taking the situation into her own hands. Letting Zoro be the talker wasn't exactly the best idea, given how those two swordsmen interacted with each other.

"This one is Luffy." She gestured towards the captain, who didn't even bother to cover the fact that he was stealing food from other people's plates, shamelessly stuffing himself.

"There sits Zoro, ..." The swordsman grunted in answer, but it was hard to decide whether it was a grunt of acknowledgment or a snort of disgust.

"Nami ..." The mikan-head lightly waved and smiled at the still unusually positioned redhead, who reluctantly returned her gesture.

"Over there is Usopp." The archaeologist smiled at the sharpshooter, who nodded towards the newcomer, but still squinted at the dark-haired woman.

"Here stands Sanji." Robin lightly gestured towards the cook, who still wasn't quite out of his anger. Not in the mood to see the redhead right now, he turned his back to him with a clear snort.

"Hiding over there is Chopper." Robin looked down at the corner of kitchen counter, where the little doctor stood hidden, in his usual opposite way. Upon being mentioned, he briefly corrected his stance, despite being already seen. It was clear that he is still afraid of the newcomer, though he had already gotten used to his odd eyes. But from the moment that he had dashed back to the ship, he had not said a word.

"Franky ..." She motioned towards the shipwright, who crashed his forearms together above his head in his slightly adjusted trademark pose. Good thing the ceiling was so high, otherwise the ship would have had one more window in her belly.

"And Brook." Robin smiled towards the musician.

"Yohohoho!" Brook chimed, bowing his head slightly down in a polite bow. "Nice to meet you!"

It was a weird feeling for the redhead as he slided from one crew member to another. It didn't look like they were lying, but he was reluctant to believe it was true. After meeting two bands of impersonators at his travels, it was more than possible that these ones were impersonators too. But if they wanted it this way ... he could play around a little too.

"Eve," the pirate stated out. "My name is Eve." It wasn't a complete lie, but not the complete truth either. Partial truth, to be honest. He had used that nickname he had made for himself plenty of times, and it paid off in the situations where mentioning his name could turn the situation to worse. Not that everyone believed his real name in the first place, but that was the price he was willing to pay for that amount of fun it held.

"Really?" Robin smiled with a knowing smile and suddenly, the redhead felt like he was read over on the spot. Maybe he might be honest a little, they even offered him soup and a cover out of their own will ...

Finally flipping himself to a more normal position, he squatted between the door jamb, settling himself in his favorite position.

"Either you are really smart or just plain lucky at guessing," the redhead grinned with a sudden spark of amusement. "If you need to know it _that badly_ ... I'm Joyce."

* * *

_**Illustration**__: planned, but I must divide my time between the writing and drawing. And writing comes first :)_

* * *

_During writing this chapter, I coincidentally stumbled upon that two-sense, Brook unintentionally whipped up. And when I began to unfold it, I was pretty unable to stop XD It was soo much fun to write that part ... _

_Hope you enjoyed it too :)_

_Jitt_


	6. 06: Ubiquitous anxiety

_Everyone bless the great __**SadEcho**__! Not only she is a great beta reader, but in a times of the highest need, her kicks aimed at my brain are greatly helping to get me out of writer's block!_

_Don't own One Piece, just love to mess with the characters in my own way._

* * *

_**Warning:** Minor foul language_

* * *

_As the night is coming down, anxiety is spreading through the Sunny's deck ..._

* * *

Awkward silence fell upon the room when the redhead stood up, feeling eight pairs of eyes upon himself that were filled with obvious disbelief. As he began to settle into a more presentable state, the whole crew watched him intently, trying to guess whether he's just fooling around again or speaking the truth.

Just look at the slender, yet undoubtedly firm body, where hints of calves and bare forearms along with strong muscles that sharply stood out against dark skin, marred with a few long, old, and roughly stitched up scars. Pinkish burn marks around the wrists and his quite broad shoulders that were wider than the hips . Just the latter mentioned were the only thing that was maybe just a bit wider than usual for a male.

But with no bulging boobs, nor femininely round bottom, and without any visible hint of hourglass figure, the strawhats were sure, the person, who was standing before them, was undoubtedly a man. Maybe those long legs, when they squinted really hard, might look like they belong to a female, but then again, one look at the Sanji's expression and all thoughts about the redhead's feminity were immediately dropped. The cook's ability to spot the female anywhere in about a kilometer wide radius was pretty legendary by now.

"The staring contest is over. And the winner iiiis ... the Greenie!" the sarcastically excited voice snapped the crew back to the reality as the redhead finished his dusting off. "Since his stare almost _drilled_ a few new holes into my minority." Supposed-to-be Joyce stuck his tongue out in a impish gesture and paced through the kitchen to the table, ostensibly ignoring how the swordsman's face darkened. Spreading his hand towards the falcon, the bird climbed up it like a parrot and settled itself on top of his red hair.

As soon as his companion had claimed its observatory again, the redhead snatched his assigned bowl of soup and a few pieces of meat and vegetables that Luffy didn't have the chance to devour yet and turned back to the door. "Thanks for the food ... I bet it will taste as good as it smells, but ..." the pirate bent a little to pass through the door with the falcon still sitting on his head,"with chili it would just be better."

*SLAM!* "That goddamned, fucked up, redheaded, pain-in-the-ass! How _dare_ he!" Sanji was sputtering with anger at the last comment, venting it out as he slammed his hands into the table.

"Bitten in the ass, ero-cook?" Zoro smirked with smug amusement, forgetting his own irritation. It wasn't that long ago when their roles were the opposite. But to insult Sanji's food ... that man had to have nerve.

"Shut up you shitty Marimo head! If you are asking for a fight, bring it on! I'll gladly kick your ass up into heaven right here, right now!" Sanji snapped harshly at the slightly surprised swordsman. Zoro didn't think that his friend would be so hyped up, but it had to be expected. No one ever insulted Sanji's food and got away with it. In a sense it was most probably more dangerous than provoking Zoro, given the fact that it was cooking that was at the stake.

"Sanji! Calm down please!" Nami rose her voice to snap the poor cook out of his state. Though still steaming like a sea train, the blonde man managed to turn his anger a little off for his favorite navigator. "Luffy! Are you really sure about this?!" she openly questioned her captain, who just finished his dinner.

"Okawari!" Luffy slammed his bowl into the table, sputtering a few crumbs around, as he tried chew and talk at the same time. It made Nami wonder whether her captain was even listening or aware of what had been happening just now.

"Looks like our captain is content with our guest." Robin pointed out with a smile.

"You seem to be pretty content with him too." Zoro frowned.

"Sometimes emitting hostility can do more bad than good." Robin replied, calmly stating her opinion in the matter. "But it would be foolish to let our guard down. We all might end up dead then."

"You are scaring me, Robin ..." Nami shuddered at the archaeologist's point. "But that could possibly happen. Someone should keep an eye on him," she turned towards the frowning swordsman, "Zoro?"

"What."

Just one glance was enough to convice Nami to forget her idea that was on her mind. Sanji will be a safer option, but given the ... circumstances ... Nami glanced towards the pissed off cook. Maybe not that much safer.

"Sanji?"

"Yes my dear! Anything for you!" the blonde man snapped out of his fuming right into his excited lovey-dovey dance faster than a blink of the eye.

That was an even better reaction than she had expected.

"Then it's settled." the navigator smiled with satisfaction. "Thank you!"

"Your welc ... wait, what?" Sanji stopped in the middle of his noodling. "What did I just agreed to?"

"That you will watch over that redhead so he won't do anything stupid." Zoro replied with the corner of his lips tugging upwards.

"_WHAT?_!" A very unmanly squeak about an octave higher than usual escaped from the cook's lips in pure desperation. "That good-for-nothing pain-in-the-ass who dared to insult my perfect cooking?!"

"Exactly." the swordsman smugly smirked.

"Why me?!" the cook tried to protest.

"You agreed." the swordsman was enjoying this teasing of the poor cook, but well .. he called it on himself, so why not to take advantage of that?

"I would never agree to anything like that, you shitty swordsman!"

"Saaanji ... you wouldn't turned me down, would you?" Nami pulled out her first-class manipulative 'sad face' followed by the big puppy eyes almost with the quality reaching Luffy's level.

"I would never turned you down, my sweet Nami-swan!" the blonde resumed his noodling around. "Your wish is like an order for me!"

"Then I wish for you to look over our ... ehm ... passenger." the navigator smiled brightly with complete satisfaction as the cook stopped in the middle of his dance again, finally grasping how hilariously he was just manipulated.

"So Luffy just invited some freaking insane pervert ,with scary sharp eyes, who is claiming to have girl's name on board ... I think my disease of "I-can't-take-it-anymore is beginning to act up again ... " Usopp muttered as he leaned his head face down on the table. "With our luck it will be some kind of monster that will eat us all alive!" The sharpshooter shuddered at that thought, obviously influenced by Robin's point earlier, and already thinking about the possible, the most catastrophic, and the most crazy scenarios.

"It wouldn't surprise me if he would be monster. Who else would be able to survive alone on the Grand Line? Definitely not someone normal!" Nami shuddered. She didn't like the captain's idea in the slightest. Though maybe they should be glad that it all was solved peacefully ... who knows what might happened?

"For a possible monster, he has such a nice name!" Brook jumped in with excitement "It reminds me the ray of light that went through the cloudy sky after the storm is over to enlighten the day!" You can count on the musician to find inspiration at even the most unexpected of places.

"Such a precious gem, worthy of the most beautiful queen, was wasted on a shitty asshole like him!" Sanji declamed theatrically, almost like standing at the stage in a yellow light of a reflector during a heartbreaking tragedy scene. "But he won't get away with that so easily!" the cook immediately snapped back to his irritation, one visible blue eye literally burning with the passionate fire of revenge.

"I said calm down!" Nami barked at the blonde, hitting him hard on the head in the process.

"As you wish ..., " the cook muttered with a loving undertone, twitching on the floor.

"You are just hopeless, swirly-brow." Zoro face palmed over such idiocy that Sanji had been showing. If it was possible, it was even worse than two years ago.

"But that doesn't change the fact he is perverted." Usopp stood up with his opinion, frowning with worry.

"It's super that the ratio of perverts on board is slowly increasing!" Franky slammed his forearms together.

"That's nothing to be happy about!" Sanji screamed in irritation, jumping back to his feet again. "What if he harms Nami-swan or Robin-chwan?! What if he is a peeping tom, or a panty thief?!"

"Maybe we could stick with him and finally see the panties of our ladies! Though I don't have any eyes being just bones!"

***SLAM***

"... yohohohooooo ..." the skeleton beeped, scared as he looked at the place where his head almost had been plastered in.

"Don't even think about that, you shitty pervy skeleton!" Sanji screamed at Brook. His shiny boot slammed into the table exactly at the spot where Brook's head would have been if the skeleton had not evaded.

"That was close ..." the musician sighed in relief as he found himself hugging Franky's neck, where he had jumped to get himself out of Sanji's attacking range. "Eh, I'm sorry, Franky ..."

"Perverts have to stick together, don't we?" Franky grinned from ear to ear. "But Brook ... are you sure that was a super kind of a smart idea?"

"What?"

"You know ... that one about peeping ..." the cyborg whispered cautiously, throwing a very meaningful glance towards both of the ladies.

Small sparks coming from Nami's Clima tact and Robin's disapproving look were enough to send thousands of scared chills over Brook's back.

"T-that was a ... skull joke?" He tried, rubbing sheepishly at the back of his afro. "Yohohoho!"

"Why am I stuck with such idiots ..." Nami face palmed herself in defense. At least those meteorologians from the Weatheria weren't so _obvious_ in their antics.

"But you know, Sanji ... as a fellow pervert, you should stand with us." Franky turned towards the cook.

"I'm not a pervert!"

"No use in denying that, cook. I saw how you sniffed around that Ghosty Girl on Sabaody."

"Th-that was a ... I was evaluating her perfume!" Sanji defended himself, turning red in embarrassment. "Unlike certain someone, she smelled _nice_ and not like rotten kimchi!"

"Who smelled like rotten kimchi?!" Zoro jumped up from the table. He knew well what the cook was referring to, and it irked him like hell.

"You, shitty idiot! Where the hell did you get lost that time?! Did you wandered into a fermenting jar, thinking you will find some more sake there?!"

"Like hell I would wander there! That was the fault of that perverted odd-eyed monstrous pain-in-the-ass our captain just so gracefully accepted on board!" the swordsman blurted out in irritation, red with embarrassment like Sanji, as he tried to defend his pride.

"He's not a monster! Even when he's a pervert, or having those scary eyes, he's a human!" the sudden hurt, disappointed, and maybe a bit angry, yell came from behind the kitchen's corner where Chopper had been hiding for the whole time, afraid of the peculiar newcomer. Saying that, the little doctor darted through the kitchen door, slamming them behind himself with a loud thud. The harshness of that action surprised everyone in the kitchen, since it went completely silent for a moment.

"Chopper?" Luffy asked uncertainly as he turned out from the opened, almost wiped out of food, fridge. What made the little doctor react in such way?

"What happened to him?" Usopp wondered out loud. Whatever had been said up until now, he was certain it wasn't meant as an insult or something like that.

"Congratulations, Marimo, you just managed to freak Chopper out again." Sanji growled at the dumbfounded and embarrassed Zoro, throwing all the guilt at the swordsman.

"Me?! Who has been spurting out about perverts, monsters, and such all the time?!" the insulted man yelled back in defense. "Don't you dare to throw everything at me!"

"Stop it, _both_ of you!" Nami slammed her palm on the table, immediately regretting it, when pain shot through it.

"It looks to me like you have met him before." Brook mused, rubbing at his chin. "I had the feeling it couldn't be just a coincidence ..."

"That meeting had to be interesting." Robin smiled, her curiosity acting again.

Zoro would have reddened even more, if it was already possible, upon the embarrassing memory.

"No, not at all." he grunted out in annoyance, clearly hinting, it wouldn't be wise to ask him further.

"I think you are _lying_." Nami narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but couldn't suppress the mischievous gleam in them. She sensed that there's a great material hidden before her that just asked to be the perfect thing for future blackmailing and manipulating the incooperative swordsman into her ways. And it hinted to be a very, very juicy, thus providing a great lever.

"You are scared that we will find out." Sanji maliciously smirked, as he sensed the same thing as Nami did. "_That_ must have been quite _something_ ... "

"Super interesting!" Franky joined in, much to Zoro's distaste. But only until the swordsman's eyes fell upon the feasting captain.

"Something is telling me, it's nothing I want to know ..." Usopp waved it off with a scared sigh.

"Oi, cook. You should care less about me and more about your fridge." Zoro said with a frown, that turned into an amused smirk for some reason, as he looked behind Sanji's back.

"Admitting defeat?"

"_Like hell_ I do." the swordsman replied with the same tone as the cook's eyes darted towards the direction he had importantly pointing out. Just then he realized what happened behind his back ...

Over the quiet sea boomed pissed off yell of a certain cook, for a moment disrupting the peace on the water surface.

"Luffy, you shitty rubber idiot! What the hell do you thinking you are doing?!"

* * *

"How could they ..." Chopper curled into his favorite spinning chair, locking himself inside the infimary "Like it was his fault, how he looks like ..."

The poor reindeer felt really bad. Not only his crewmates, but he too, had rejected the red-headed guest on the spot without knowing anything about him at all. It was even worse for him, since he knew all too well how it feels to be rejected by others just because of look. It hurt and upset him, that he let himself be dragged into such a primal reaction.

Was this how the people in Drum Kingdom had felt like when he had appeared at the town's outskirts? Were they scared of uncertainty like him? Afraid of what he could do to them? Or was it his unnatural look that scared them in the first place?

Too many questions flooded the poor doctor's mind, tormenting him. He wanted to cry at how cruel he was towards someone, who did nothing bad to him. Who just sat there and looked at him.

It was wrong to judge the others without knowing anything, and he knew it well. He knew well, how it hurt ...

Quiet tapping on the door of the locked infimary disrupted Chopper's inner thoughts, as he warily lifted his round eyes and looked at the doorknob.

"Chopper?" Robin's soft voice, muted by the wood, caressed his hurting soul. "Are you there?" the doctor could hear genuine concern in that question, but right now he didn't feel like talking or trying to explain his behavior. That was another thing that pained him right now.

Whatever his nakamas said, he shouldn't just yell at them and then run away. It was insensitive from him and ... he shivered at that though ... maybe it made them angry or irritated. And that was something he never wanted. His mood dropped down even more down, if it has been even possible.

"If you will need something, you know you can come to us anytime." the archaeologist assured him, certain, that Chopper wanted to be alone for now. She knew well that he was locked in the infimary, but pressuring him wouldn't do any good right now. "If something happens, Sanji is taking the first watch." Quiet, light steps could be heard going away from the locked door.

"Thanks Robin." he muttered silently to himself, really thankful that she didn't try to come in, even though, he had locked the door. This was something that he would have to sort out inside of himself. Though he was sure, that if he came to share his feelings with them, no one would have turned him down. But he wasn't a kid anymore. He wanted to become a man, a person like Zoro was.

Would Zoro come to anyone to cry? Definitely not! He was a man!

But ... Chopper felt the chills running up to his spine at the memory of that feeling the redhead induced in him, when their eyes met, and all the courage he gained suddenly disappeared. But how to approach someone, who feels so dangerous, closed and possibly irritated or insulted?

His look fell upon the medical bag on his writing desk and he recalled the bandages and healing burns at the redhead's body. But to do this, he will need someone to back him up, just in case ...

* * *

"How is Chopper?" the question greeted the archaeologist right as she entered the girl's room. Nami sat on her bed, looking worried.

"He wants to be alone for now. But he will be all right." Robin answered calmly, pacing across the room to her sleeping place.

"I feel sorry for him ... we really overdid it ..." the navigator sighed in regret. Those, who witnessed the situation in the Drum Kingdom should have anticipated that reaction, and what's more, watched their mouths better. This was completely useless and needless and foremost, didn't need to happen at all.

"I don't think he is expecting an apology for him." the archaeologist pointed out, as she picked her pajamas from the dresser. "He's more upset with his own behavior. But to tell the truth, it wouldn't surprise me if our reactions were the last drops for him."

"But it's all that redhead's fault!" Nami pouted and crossed her arms before her chest in defense. "He just snuck over here, almost drowned Luffy, threatened to slice our Sunny, freaked Chopper out, pushed Zoro to his patience limits, and insulted Sanji's cooking in one go! On top of that, he's claiming a girl's name as his own! I don't really know what to think about him."

"And what would you do, being in his shoes?" Robin asked calmly, but with clear disagreement with what Nami said, at least from the most part of it.

"What do you mean ... ?"

"Would you trust someone, you just met, who ruined your ship and is openly hostile towards you?" the archaeologist asked in a conversational way, hinting at what she had on her mind.

"You are right." Nami admitted in defeat and sighed tiredly. "But it's pretty hard to trust him."

"I never said we should trust him completely." Robin corrected the misunderstanding. "That would be foolish of us."

"So what should we do? Being friendly towards him?" Nami frowned at that idea. She really didn't like to be friendly with someone so irritating, despite being potentially dangerous.

"That would be a good start. Maybe we can find out more info about him then." the archaeologist nodded in agreement. "Being hostile solves nothing, and will only make more problems for us. And since he's at least somewhat friendly towards us too ... "

"I don't really like that idea ... I hope Sanji and Zoro will keep their eyes on him. I don't really want to wake up with a sliced throat." Nami hit the pillow with her head, as she lied down.

"I don't think he would do something like that. He doesn't seem to be the type." Robin changed herself and slided under the bedsheets. "But it won't hurt to be on guard."

Uneasy silence fell upon the darkened room, only the sounds of occasional shifting under the covers disturbed the rocking of the waves.

"Ne, Robin ... what do you think about him? About his name?" Nami voiced out in uncertainty. "Do you think it's real?"

"Whether it's real or not is not the problem. I can understand why he doesn't want to reveal his name to someone he just met. What's more interesting is the rumors I have heard, including that name, shortly after we got separated ..."

"Rumors?" Nami sprang up from the bed in alarm. Robin's information was usually correct in every way.

"There was a pirate, named Joyce, who had started to gain infamy during the past two years, in the Grand Line. But marines caught him around two months back. Probably someone really dangerous, since his first bounty was assigned three years ago, because according to the news he singlehandedly wiped out a marine base in South Blue from the surface of the world. Also during the past two years he really made the World Government's head hurt pretty bad, from what I heard and read."

"_WHAT?!_" Nami shrieked in dread and disbelief. "Robin, are you _kidding_?! You don't mean _that_ person, do you?! Why didn't you point that out _sooner_?! If it's him, then we are in grave danger! He's rumored to be totally crazy, killing everything that moves!" her voice reeked with pure panic.

"He's most probably an impostor." the archaeologist calmly answered and Nami would swear, there was a smile on her lips in the darkness. "It wouldn't surprise me in this era. We met our impostors at Sabaody too. There are a few people, oblivious enough to the dangers, claiming to be someone infamous to reach their own goals ... this might be the same case."

"That didn't really convinced me to sleep calmly now ..." the navigator sighed again and slammed herself back onto the pillow.

"That's why I said we should stay on guard, watching our back. You never know ..." Robin paused for a second "Anyway, believing everything that the World Government news publishes is foolish too. According to them we are a bunch of bloodthirsty freaks, who are looking for a fight everywhere possible." she added with a knowing tone.

"But you said the marines caught him ... I remember reading something like that in the newspapers too." Nami sighed in a small relief.

"They did, but he might have escaped. And I don't think, the World Government would boast about such failure, given the list of things they had against him." Robin giggled.

"I think I don't want to talk about this anymore ..." the navigator covered her ears with the pillow, just in case Robin would wanted to continue. But after hearing all of this, it was pretty impossible to fall asleep. Anxiety spread through the mikan-head's mind, as she processed through heaps of different scenarios that might happen in the near future, which freaked her out even more. She would never tell she felt endangered and threatened on board of the Sunny.

"But that locket around his neck looks interesting." the archaeologist mused out loud, letting her ideas seep out. "I think I saw a similar one in the books ..."

"Yeah, I noticed that too." Nami's voice suddenly took a interested tone, reserved only for occasions where she was interested in the treasure. "It looks pretty expensive."

"Maybe not only from the material side, but it might have a nice historical value too ..." Robin stated out quietly and allowed her mind to finally drift off into sleep too.

Silence, that fell upon the dark room again, wasn't exactly the best thing to chase the bad thoughts away. Tossing and turning on her bed for quite some time, Nami was forced to got up again.

From Robin's bed she could hear a quiet breathing as the archaeologist slept. The navigator knew well, how light of a sleeper Robin was. Even if something would happen, Robin would be the second one to wake up, Zoro being the first, at the slightest sound or feeling of danger, despite his ability to sleep through anything that was happening around.

But right now, it wasn't anywhere near enough for the scared navigator. Right now she wanted to sleep, being exhausted from the storm they just went through ... and she knew where to find the most safest place in the whole ship.

Silently getting up, not to wake Robin, she scooped her pillow and blanket, and tiptoeing, disappeared from the girl's room into the darkness.

* * *

_*Chrrrr* *puiii * * Chrrrrrr* * puiiii* * chrrrrrr*_

_*Dr dr dr dr dr dr dr ... *_

_*Chrrrr* *puiii * * Chrrrrrr* * puiiii* * chrrrrrr*_

_*Dr dr dr dr dr dr dr ... *_

"Usopp ..." the swordsman grunted in mild annoyance, as he recognized the rattling of the sharpshooter's teeth in apparent fear despite the other loud sounds.

"W-w-what?" the curled bundle in the hammock above him answered warily and as quiet as possible.

"Stop that. It's bad enough with Luffy's snoring." Zoro informed his nakama through his usual grunts, and turned to the other side.

"S-s-sorry ... but ... did you hear what the girls were talking about?!" The poor sharpshooter obviously had heard something he shouldn't have.

"Then you shouldn't listen to them."

"A-a-aren't you scared it's true, what R-r-robin just said ...?"

"Why should I?" Zoro frowned as he lifted his head a little from off the pillow "He wouldn't dare to try something. It's nine against one, whatever he's blabbering about."

"Y-y-you are pretty certain about that ..." Usopp pointed out. "How can you ... ?"

"Cause if he does, Luffy will be the first one to stand up against him and I definitely won't pass up that chance too. So stop freaking out and go to sleep." A swirl of killing intent just enhanced the warning in swordsman's words, leaving Usopp wondering, whether it was a good idea to ask at all.

"I-if you say so ... " Usopp nested further into his bed sheet "I-I'm counting on you."

"Hmm ..." the half-asleep grunt of acknowledgment eased the sharpshooter's nerves, but not by much.

For a few moments the silence inside of the room was disturbed only by loud snoring the and occassional rattle of teeth.

"Zoro?" Brook's soft voice asked from his hammock, slightly uncertain.

"Mhhmm..."

"What happened between you two?" it was obvious that the skeleton was pretty curious about the possibilities. Well, who wasn't in this crew?

"Brook?" Zoro asked, yawning like a lion, in answer.

"Yes?"

"_Don't ask_ and let me sleep."

"But it had to be really something to tick you like this." Franky's musing voice reached to them from his sleeping place. "Are you sure, you _don't want_ to share this with your nakama?"

"_Frrranky ..._"

"I understand, I said nothing." the cyborg giggled a bit. "Sleep well."

"Hmmhm." Zoro grunted for the last time, and turned to his back, folding his arms under his head, as he stared right into the bottom of the hammock above. It wasn't that bad, but he wasn't very eager to share this particular memory with everyone ... it was just ... embarrassing. Really.

The swordsman gritted his teeth, as the memory flashed through his frowned mind.

_"Waiting sucks. How long __does__ Luffy intend to take until he gets __here__? And the others, as well?" __The__ green-haired swordsman frowned, tapping his empty mug __on__ the table, clearly disappointed. "If it __wasn't__ for that stupid accident, he wouldn't __have been__ forced to __come__ here so early! Damn you, Hawkeye ... don't think, you will get rid of me like this! I won't let you __get off__ the hook so easily, you can bet on it!" _

_Stinging memories were flooding his slightly alcohol-numbed mind. Not that it ever worked __on__ him, but drinking himself under the table __was__ never such __a __appealing idea. At a times like these his immunity towards alcohol was more of a burden than the blessing. Every time his thoughts wandered around the past two years __his__ newest scar, running down over his left eye__,__ forcing it to stay in darkness forever, twitched in a painful reminder._

_It was pointless to search __for__ where the guilt lied. It __had__ happened, and everything changed within the split of a second. Like when Kuina died ..._

_Zoro grit his teeth in anger and frustration. He __would not__ let some freaking scar or injury to stop him __from__ achieving his goal. __F__or him it didn't chang__e__ anything. But unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said about his former teacher._

_Some loud commotion __from__ outside the inn he was drinking __at for the__ past few hours tor__e__ him__ from his inner, gloomy musing__. Not that he wanted to __be here__ in particular, getting lost as usual, but he didn't care at this point where exactly he __was__ as long as there was a plenty of booze. It sounded like someone was yelling, and despite being pretty loud, it was hard to catch what exactly __was being said__ at all._

_One of the windows near him suddenly shattered into thousands of shards, as a human body flew into the pub like __a__ meteor head first. Zoro was lucky to save his bottle of booze and mug from the destruction as the visitor landed right at his table, crashing through it into the wooden floor. Immediately, the redhead sprang onto his feet and peeked from the shattered window to look outside where quite a few people rushed around._

_"Find him! I want that fucked-up head of his on my table __by__ evening!" someone __shouted__ out loud in apparent anger. " __One __Hundred thousand belli to anyone who bring__s__ me his head!"_

_"That's pretty cheap." __the__ redheaded meteor pouted in disappointment._

_"Just wait, Akagami! The moment I get my hands __on you__, I'm going to kill you!" __W__hoever was shouting that __had__ to be pretty strong to announc__e__ such a thing out loud._

_"It's Akage, you idiot, Akage!" came the sharp, insulted hiss "If you want to refer to my head, at least do it right! Or is everyone deaf and blind ... or ... what ... ?" As the man, dressed in tattered and faded clothes, turned around he was slightly taken aback by incredulous stare that almost drilled a hole into his back. Eyebrow cocked up in ironic disbelief, Zoro was sitting just beside the intruder, holding his liquor out of the harm's way __and__ staring hard at the cause of the mess outside._

_"Hi!" the redhead grinned widely in __a__ impossibly careless manner, slightly startling the swordsman since that grin reminded him __of__ Luffy a bit too much for his taste. "Don't mind me, we are just playing hide and seek! Or __do__ you want to join in?" the redhead behaved obliviously towards the tense __atmosphere__ that spread through the bar the moment he flew inside, excited sparks of joy dancing in his odd eyes._

_"No." Zoro deadpanned immediately, swiftly changing his expression back into his usual frown. Just from that one sentence, he already began to question the redhead's sanity._

_"What a pity ... it's __funnier__ when more people joins in." __The__ redhead tried to rub off the small shards that __had gotten__ stuck in his wildly sticking out long hairdo, much to Zoro's distaste. He didn't really wanted his drink to be enriched with glass._

_What caught the swordsman's interest, was a pair of swords tucked firmly behind the redhead's waist __and__ covered in long, black stripes of cloth __with__ only t__he__ handles sticking out. __One was__ black with __an__ orange design and black tsuba, while the other was red with __a__ silver design and silver tsuba. They didn't quite fit the redhead's exterior, as he looked more like __a__ beggar than anything else, while the swords clearly hinted to be pretty valuable just from the amount of craftmanship engraved into them._

_Not only his possible level of swordsmanship, but also the redhead's oblivious behavior towards the mess, __managing__ to make even __the__ inside __of__ the pub __just by__ being there __for a__ few seconds, caught Zoro's eye. Though his unusual entry was most probably to be blamed too._

_"Look who just complimented us with his presence guys." __A__ bulky man, sitting at the opposite side of the bar rose his voice up with a smug smirk. "The great Akagami itself!" he laughed deeply in apparent sarcasm._

_Zoro's eyes immediately squinted towards the redhead, who turned his head towards the talker. From what he heard during his travels with Luffy, the Yonko should have been one arm short, but this person had both hands still in the right places. Though maybe not for long. Even if the mentioned Yonko was on par with Mihawk back when he had both arms, for a swordsman, loosing his arm __was a__ critical injury that cut strength at least __by__ half. He knew well, how important is__ to have__ the chance to strike with __a__ sword with both arms and how different it is from a simple one-handed strike, not mentioning __for__ defense._

_"__One h__undred thousand belli for someone who dare__s__ to claim the Yonko's name is nowhere near enough. It would be better if they were evaluating th__ose__ scums by their idiocy. The more dumb, the more money from it."_

_"But for a rat, wh__o__ is running away, it's not that bad __of an__ offer. Look at those swords, it's apparent that he must __have stolen__ them!" __T__hree pair of eyes drilled into the squatting redhead, who turned his eyes away from Zoro towards the group gathered around the loudest table in the pub._

_"Ehehee ..." the redhead laughed sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck, completely covered with __a__ green scarf "Don't take me wrong, gentlemen, but I think you are mistaking me __for__ someone else..."_

_"You don't say ... if you __are trying__ to talk yourself out __of this__, you just miserably failed." the bulky man laughed, clearly amused by the redhead's excuse._

_"If you are gonna believe to everything __that__ some idiot is shouting out loud outside, it makes you even more stupid than him." the redhead shrugged casually in answer, peeking out from the window again __while__ turning his back towards the provocateurs._

_"What did you __just __say__?!"_

_"Get your ears checked, I'm not gonna to repeat it." the redhead immediately deadpanned over __his__ shoulder, clearly not bothered with what __was__ going on behind his back. _

_A__ high-pitched whistle, that pierced __through__ eardrums, reached into the inn as some kind of signal. At that moment, the bulky __man__ decided it was enough and __swung__ his huge hammer in __a__ clear attempt to turn the daring redhead into __an__ oily splash on the floor._

_***CRASH!*** the redhead rolled __backwards,__ right through the bulky man's widely spread legs, successfully avoiding the thunderous impact that turned the wooden floor into a crater full of splinters __at that place__._

_From somewhere from the back flew __a__ half-empty bottle, forewent with ominous crack, reminding the swordsman a sound of a whip, when the item shattered __on__ the bulky man's head. __A__ few of others follow__ed__ them randomly __from__ all directions. _

_Even Zoro's bottle wasn't spared, as something thin but firm suddenly tangled around the bottle's neck and with a sharp tug sent the item flying out of the swordsman's hand._

_"Hey! That was my sake!" green-haired man shouted angrily at such loss, but it was pointless. __In a matter of seconds, the whole bar was engaged in a first class brawl._

_"Yeah, 'was'! It just happened to turn into my ammunition!" he heard a light-hearted, pretty amused answer coming from somewhere from the middle of the crowd._

_Through the corner of his eye, he could see a few less courageous beings that crawled to safety out__side__ of the pub, which turned into __a__ battlefield. Not even the barman's shouts and shots w__ere__ effect__ive__, but he __had__ to admit that t__he__ elder__ly__ man had some balls. Pulling out a rifle and shooting __it__ in such __a__ situation required more than just a pair of them._

_"Marines!" someone yelled in panic and the brawl proceeded into another level. Marine's squad stormed into the mess and began to pacify the rowdy pirates on the spot._

_When some of the brawlers discovered, that the pub is encircled by another marine's squad, some of them tried to get away right now. But just as they jumped or ran out from the pub, the situation changed again, when another group of pirates tried to fight themselves into the said pub through the marine's barriers, successfully adding another good dose of chaos on top of everything._

_"Akagami's there! The Yonko is there! Eveyone run away!" Someone from the attacking pirates shouted all the way in. Even the marines were turning their heads around, trying to spot one of the strongest pirates of the world._

_"I'm not him! Idiots!" heavily irritated scream of hoarse voice slashed the air like a crack of whip, but no one paid the attention to that._

_In an impossibly short time, it stopped to be clear at all, who is fighting whom and who is just trying to escape and run for his life. _

_Marines beating up pirates, pirates beating up marines, pirates beating up pirates and even the marines, in some moments, beating up marines, that was a clear picture of how the calamity would looked like. Or a natural disaster, momentarily trying to turn the inn into the pile of a rubble._

_Then Zoro caught a glimpse of a red hair, calmly walking away through the middle of brawling crowd, head up and back straight, as if the battlefield around had nothing to do with him. Unnoticed, skillfully evading the punches, kicks and flying bottles not even minding them along the way. And through the swordsman's mind suddenly flashed an ominous feeling about from where that impulsion, which started this whole mess, __originated__._

_It wouldn't be hard for the swordsman to cut his way out of the middle of this brawl, but he doesn't really wanted to have his identity discovered, not yet. Even when he had nothing to do, at least he could wander around. If the marines would find him right now, Shakky would definitely make sure, he won't stick his nose out of the Rip-off bar anytime soon. Even Rayleigh was kind of helpless against her, when something (or someone) irritated her._

_Not wanting to go through the unnecessary problems, Zoro weighted his chances and finally, decided to avoid direct confrontation as __long as__ possible, quickly scanning the interior for a suitable cover. In a mere seconds, he found it and throwing the punches and kicks into all possible directions, he made his way towards it._

_Finally, when he had a chance to get near,__ he__ jumped from the middle of a chaos into hiding behind the bar table head first ..._

The sudden sway of his hammock disturbed the swordsman from his memories, as someone tried to get into it. He didn't even needed to crack his good eye open to know, who is trying to claim his sleeping place as his own.

"Oi, woman ..." Zoro grunted quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up. "You scared or what?"

"Move a little ... " Nami poked her nakama sharply into the side forcing the man to flinch "Don't be so mean ..." she whispered and didn't even bother to hide that whining undertone. It was clear, that she is afraid of staying in the girl's room alone, with just Robin, given the circumstances.

"Will you cut my debt down a bit if I do?" he asked with a huge yawn, almost popping his jaws out, but making a room for her anyways.

"No." she immediately replied, snuggling into the swordsman's firm side, using his shoulder as a pillow as he placed his arm around her "But ... I might think about that ..." she admitted quietly, letting her worries seep into her low voice. This wasn't a regular occurence, but in a few times like these, when her self-preservation instincts kicked in, she knew, where to find the safest place possible.

Only behind the Zoro's back.

* * *

**Notes:**

Okawari! - Next!/Another one! (mean as "next/another serving")

Kimchi - fermented cabbage, Korean traditional meal

Akagami - _(no need to translate, I suppose :P)_ The Red-haired

Akage - The Redhead

* * *

_**Illustration: **_**That was close! **( _jittuse dot deviantart dot com slash art/That-was-close-374682840?q=gallery%3Ajittuse&qo=0 )_

* * *

_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, really terribly sorry! *repeatedly bowing deep down, smacking the forehead to the floor* My muse went on the unplanned vacation first, and when she returned, she immediately began a wildcat strike ... saying something about almost dying out of starvation :( It took me two weeks to convice her into some kind of cooperation again ... _

_So please, don't let her starve! She wants your reviews as a desserts ... or she will go into the strike again. :X  
Please, I'm counting on you! Be it good or bad, she can't be that picky about them so I'll serve them all to her! :P_

_But at least, after some discussing, we managed to pull out together the chapter six. Even though all that struggling, it was pretty fun to write it down, once the writer's block lifted for a bit :)  
(And thanks to SadEcho again, who successfully acted as my muse for the meantime! Without her, I would be lost like Zoro in a straight corridor ... *hopeless*)_

_I hope you enjoyed it :) I'll try to write and publish the next chapter as usual (about a week from now on), but when I take a look at my office table, I think I'll end buried under all that work before I will have a chance to write something down at all ... :X_

_Ugh ... I feel like I need to apologize right now for the future delay, since something is telling me it will inevitably come ... :X _

_Anyway! Thanks a lot for your support and stay tuned! :)_

_Jitt_


	7. 07: Drawing near

_My muse seems to be back on track, gifting me with ideas for this chapter :)_

_As _**SadEcho**_ commented, maybe she was going so fast, she just tripped and needed to scrape herself off the ground .. :D_

_Usual credit for correcting and beta reading goes to _**SadEcho**_ :) Thank you again!_

_Do not own One Piece, just love to messing with characters in my own way._

* * *

_**Warning:** Tiny bits of adult suggestions, some minor language (someone should teach them how to express themselves without being so vulgar XD)_

* * *

_Sometimes, your sense for the right things won't let you overlook what happened, even if the fear stands in your way ... _

* * *

As the warm, woman's body snuggled up to him, Zoro stared at the bottom of a hammock above, drifting down into his mind again. Good thing that Sanji wasn't there, being jealous and overprotective as he was, but he could understand, why Nami chose him instead of the cook as a safety cover. Contrary to the popular belief, he _was_ interested in women, being a man after all, but unlike certain others, he wasn't showing it so openly. That's where the jokes about his orientation began to form.

It wasn't like he never stole a glance at a sunbathing Nami, sporting just a tiny bikini or Robin, dressed in a tight miniskirt, but thanks to a certain issues, he rather kept his distance from all women in general. Though time from time, when his body demanded the need, he was willing to obey, even if he knew, he wouldn't have any real pleasure from it. Lying passively on his back, struggling to stay in control and leaving willingly the whole initiative to his playmate was more than just boring.

It was similar to fighting to Zoro. Battling with a weak enemy, who he didn't want to kill, was bothersome. Excessive need to control and contain his strength meant no thrill from the battle at all.

But being passive was a better solution than scaring those few brave women, who had the courage to dare and try to seduce him out, until they witnessed the depth of his wildness, strength, and danger, that attracted them to him in the first place or even hurt them in the process. Women were just too fragile of the mind and body for them to be able to handle him at all.

In times like these, it left him secretly wondering, whether if his childhood friend hadn't died that day, if she would be able to keep up with him, and not only in swordsmanship. Just in this one case, he truly believed, it would be possible to fully enjoy the act without unneeded restraint, diving into it with everything, he had.

Inwardly sighing again, shifting into his usual frowned expression, the swordsman closed his good eye and decided it would be good to change his mental topic for now. Every time he though about Kuina, it filled him with sadness, regret, and frustration, even more, after that accident with the Hawkeye happened.

Remembering the master swordsman, Zoro frowned deeper when his mind offered him a familiar picture of two swords, tucked behind the green sash, sheaths wrapped in a black cloth.

He was sure he never saw them, yet they felt strangely familiar to him. But he was kind of sure, he had felt a similar feeling in the past and the only place that came to his mind was the Kuraigana island. But still, it wasn't quite like that ...

At that moment an impossibly excited grin came to his mind together with the dark skin and wild red hair, causing the swordsman grimace with desperation and almost groan.

That brawl was bad enough by itself, and if he knew it was only the beginning of his problems, he would have killed that troublemaker on the spot the moment, he dared to fly right through that window.

Or better, dragged him into the Rip-off bar, even if that meant to slice him into pieces.

_"Stupid old geezer." the swordsman grunted, as he quickly paced out of the demolished inn to find another refugee "Like hell I'll pay for what that redheaded idiot did! I don't even know him!" the green-haired man was fuming with irritation. Maybe it was a good time to head back to the Rip-off bar, his temporary hideout._

_But being lost, he has ... it might take more than just some time to find a way back._

* * *

_"Shakky, be reasonable." Rayleigh sighed, trying to contain his nervousness, as the former pirate paced through her bar back and forth, like lion, waiting for his prey. Even the smoke __rising__ from her cigarette __gave__ out the feeling of hostility. "I bet it was just an accident."_

_"Oh my ... demolishing half of the pub, almost being discovered by marines, and ruining the whole plan is _just_ an accident? Really?" Shakuyaku lifted one eyebrow in questioning look. News about Zoro's adventure spread faster than a wildfire. __The__ Bartender's system of warning, before the rowdies ,worked like the finest wrist watch. "I can tolerate him being unable to pay for his bills in__ other__ inns, but this is too much."_

_"I heard Gerard's version too." Rayleigh sighed again, dropping his glass on the bar table. This would be a hard task. "But you can't expect ..."_

_The door creaked, as someone entered the bar. Heavy, grumpy steps followed by a 'gimme a break' type of feeling, didn't really __leave__ any room for doubts about who just came in._

_"I'm back." Zoro announced, frowning, as his eye met Shakky's. Fast and impatient tapping of her foot quickly started to get on his nerves, but at the same time leaving him wondering what happened to set the usually nice bartender to such a bad mood._

_"Oh my ... look, who just returned." the woman dragged from her cigarette, looking critically at the swordsman "Youngster, we need to talk." the former pirate extinguished the stick into ashtray and crossed her arms before her chest._

_"About what?" Zoro's frown deepened, as the feeling emanating from apparently irritated bartenderess sent slight chills up to his spine. Though Rayleigh's quiet sigh and face palm behind Shakuyaku's back didn't help the situation in a slightest._

_"I can tolerate your habit of running around the pubs without a single belli in __your__ pocket and me, paying for your bills afterwards. But destroying the inns is something I can't simply let go." Shakuyaku didn't wasted her time with beating around the bush and instead__ went__ straight to the business. "Even more, when it's throwing a bad light __on__ my own business."_

_"But I did nothing!" Zoro immediately went __on__ the offensive defense, unwillingly admitting his anticipated guilt, despite wide and alarmed gesticulation from Rayleigh, sitting behind Shakky so she couldn't seen him. The older man was viciously shaking his head __disapprovingly in a clear __warning, but Zoro decided to ignored it, wanting to __stand __up for his truth. "It was all that redhead's fault!"_

_"I don't want to hear any __of your __complains."__ the bartender swept his words off the table like dust, with calm and ease. "Gerard is my old friend. So it would be nice of you __to__ accepted his generous offer." Shakky turned on __her__ high heel, heading back behind the bar table. It was clear, that for her, the business was over._

_"Like hell I would go and scrub the plates in that old geezer's inn for two days! I did nothing wrong!" Zoro yelled in irritation, catching with the corner of his eye Rayleigh's desperate expression as he __placed__ his head into his palms at such idiocy, just as Shakky turned her back to the older man again._

_"Oh my ... take it as a valuable lesson for the future: Every action will meet its consequences, sooner or later. So be a man and face them like one."_

_"I'm not running away! But that's ... !" Zoro tried to oppose, knowing well, that he doesn't have a chance to talk the strict bartender out of her way anymore. Damn women and their demands! And he was looking forward to savor__ing__ his peace at the Sabaody once he __got__ rid of that Ghosty Girl. And now, he had to deal with Nami's incarnation ... Zoro almost face palmed himself in desperation at his misfortune._

_"If you don't like it, you can work it off in my kitchen instead." Shakuyaku shrugged her shoulders indifferently, but that wasn't what caught Zoro's attention._

_Rayleigh, greatly alarmed, rose his muscular hands above, crossing them there and shooking viciously his head in a heavy warning, as if he was saying "Anything but that!", right behind Shakky's back._

_Sensing the sudden movement behind her back, the bartenderess turned her head towards the former pirate, who immediately changed his position, looking out from the window, whistling, his body language openly saying "I'm not even there, don't mind me ... I said nothing ..."_

_Despite his relaxed position, Zoro noticed the beads of sweat forming on the older man's forehead, as Shakky's sharp look __dug__ into his frame. Stealing a wary glance at the bartender, Zoro's eye twitched a few times at how poor Rayleigh __was__ so utterly dominated by this entity. If even the former first mate of a Pirate King was scared of this woman like this, he should have thanked any __higher__ being that was watching over him right now that he got __out__ of __t__his unfortunate event so easily._

_"Guess __you are__ not leaving me any other option." the green-haired swordsman growled through the gritted teeth as he dropped down on the stool just beside Rayleigh, who deeply exhaled and covered his face with a broad palm as Shakky left the room. "Oi, old man ..." he turned towards the former pirate, slightly curious "Would it be _that _bad?"_

_"... worse than you can imagine. She's a perfectionist to the bone." the pirate mumbled from behind the hand in a dark tone, which left Zoro wondering what the old man went through with this particular woman ..._

"Zoro ...? Zoro ... " Tugging at his blanket that he was covered with and a pleading, quiet voice snapped the swordsman back to the half-conscious state again. Knowing well who was disturbing his sleep this time, with a grunt of acknowledgment, he lazily lifted one corner of his blanket, making room for the night visitor to slip under. It wasn't unexpected for Chopper to have a nightmare, given the actual circumstances, but every time it happened the little reindeer was looking for a safe cover under the reliable swordsman's protective wings.

"_Zoro_ ... wake up, please ..." the doctor was pleading, tugging with more vehemence.

"Whaddya want, Chopper ... " the green-haired man yawned out, already content with the fact that he won't get enough sleep this night too "Just slip inside, or you will wake up Nami ..."

"I need your help ..." the doctor beeped uncertainly.

" 'pper .. ? 's happening ...?" Nami mumbled incoherently, half asleep, as she lifted her head from Zoro's shoulder, trying to focus her vision at the little doctor. " 'vrything 'll right, ... right?" she sounded uncertain and maybe a bit worried.

"Go back to sleep, nothing happened." Zoro grunted towards her in a calming manner and the navigator's head dropped immediately down, resuming her beauty sleep in an instant. That was the first thing the swordsman did, checking with his Haki, upon another unwanted reveille, on what was happening in every corner of the ship.

Thankfully nothing disastrous or dangerous, as he could feel Sanji sitting on board, probably secretly watching over the redhead, who appeared to be fast asleep, from what he could sense.

"Zoro ..." Chopper apologetically mumbled, but the swordsman silenced him, pressing a finger up to his own lips and gesturing towards the door. As he slipped carefully out from his hammock, he could only inwardly groan, when the navigator immediately claimed the whole place as her own, enjoying the warmness he left there.

It stopped him surprising long ago and so he also stopped asking 'why it had to be him', accepting this arduous task that the fate casted upon him. When the crew needed a woman's advice, they turned at the Robin. When they need a man, a protector or whatever along those lines, they turned at him. No wonder, given the fact, that he was the most serious of the whole crew, able to infuse them with a feeling of safety when Luffy was busy fooling around. Not that he ever thought the captain was lacking on this side, but ... sometimes, he had to step in his place instead of him. But in the right times, he knew, when to stand back and let the captain do the captain's job, that was for sure.

"Hm?" Zoro grunted out in answer, rubbing at his good eye, stiffing a huge yawn, when he quietly closed the door behind them.

"I'm sorry I woke you up ..." Chopper mumbled apologetically, kneading his doctor's backpack in his hooves.

" 's okay ..." the swordsman yawned, unable to stop. "What happened?" he concretized his question, since his usual grunt was clearly not enough this time.

"I need your help ..." Chopper repeated, shifting his look to the side and Zoro would swear, if it weren't for a darkness and thick fur, the doctor would be red with embarrassment.

"With what?" the green-haired man asked, squatting at Chopper's eye level. Extracting information from the little doctor was a test of the patience, even more, when he was uncertain, but the swordsman didn't want to hurt the doctor's feelings. If he needed the time, he would give it to him.

Gesturing with a hoof to come close, Zoro inwardly sighed in defeat, as he leaned his head down a bit, offering his ear to whatever Chopper had on his mind.

* * *

A cooling sea breeze calmed down a good share of Sanji's anger, and the cook savored the pleasant feeling of wind, caressing his warm cheeks. Lighting up his cigarette, he looked at the setting sun, unable to suppress an angry grunt. He was still not able to stomach down the redhead's nonexistent manners. If he wondered before how it was possible to set Zoro on fire within such a short time frame, now he had the answer, given personally by the perpetrator. His ability to find a crack in anyone's mental defense was kind of fascinating, leading Sanji's thoughts towards the question of how the hell the redhead had been able to survive till now with that kind of attitude. Maybe his crew abandon him, driving him out? That would be logical explanation, given the fact of how vehemently he played with the nerves of every person, unlucky enough to be in his vicinity.

"Seasoning ..." the cook mused, shaking his head in disbelief, as he inhaled the air through the cigarette. "Devil's gift." he smirked, as he remembered Zeff's lecturing about their proper usage. The meal should be a mixture of finely combined, different flavor, mild ones underlining the taste of the strong ones, twirling and dancing at the taste buds in a perfect synergy to the point that the eater would experience a pure nirvana, just from tasting one tiny bite. Gurmanic orgasm, Zeff called it, that should be the goal of every cook under the sun.

"Old geezer ... I wonder if he's doing well?" Sanji smirked, returning his thoughts shorty to the sea restaurant, drifting somewhere in the East Blue. "And Patty and Carne ... shitty bastards ..." the cook chuckled, as he briefly remembered some things that they caused and went through together.

A quiet thud, as if something just landed softly on the deck, snapped him back to the reality. Immediately, reminding himself about the unwanted passenger, he spread his Haki to sense what the redheaded entity, who so shamelessly claimed the girl's name, was scheming.

Sneaking behind the corner to have a better look, he observed how the redhead freely paced towards the back deck and stopped in the place where his boat had been tied to the Sunny.

Smirking, he imagined, how the redhead would freak out upon hearing what he had just called his vessel. Just you wait, you little shitty devil. You won't get me so easily like you get on that Marimo's ass!

It looked like the algae-head, as the cook nicknamed him, not wanting to call him by a apparently false name, was telling something to his animal companion, but in a low voice, so the cook couldn't heard them at all.

Leaving his blades on the deck, leaning them against railing, the falcon sat above them, giving off the feeling of utter importance with its small frame, to be entrusted with such a serious task. Surprisingly, the redhead jumped on the railing and with ease ran over the ropes to the rubbery lollipop, floating on the water. After a few seconds of fiddling with something near the mast, the pirate disappeared inside, through the formerly covered hole, into the depths of the rubber bag.

"One hell of a swordsman, leaving his swords unguarded." Sanji shook his head and extinguished his cigarette. Zoro would never let his swords to be lying around like this, treating them with utmost care to the extent that he never allowed to anyone to even touch them. In a sense, fiddling with Zoro's swords was equal to insulting Sanji's cooking, since both of them valued those things almost over everything else. The cook did notice a few stealthy glares the swordsman had thrown at those expensively looking swords before, which poked cook's interest a bit more.

Maybe it would be great blackmailing material and he would be able to dig out some info about this person, but more importantly, about his meeting with Zoro. Curiosity burning inside the cook was fanned to an unbearable extent upon seeing how reluctant the swordsman was about sharing his experience with everyone else. If nothing else, it ensued a good dose of hilarity and teasing material for future use, since there was never enough things as ammunition for their endless arguments. And if it would please his glorious Nami-swan at the same time, it would be even better.

To his great ill luck, before the cook could launch his plan, the redhead popped out of the rubber ball, covering the entrance again and lightly running over the ropes back to the ship, a sailor's sack hung over his shoulder. It didn't escaped Sanji's eye, that the redhead's pants were drenched again, from the jagged bottom up to half of his thighs.

"Pretty toned out thighs." the cook mused inwardly, starting to evaluate the redhead's visible figure despite the loose clothes in a dimming light, immediately mentally slapping himself to think something like that about a man. Two years in the Kamabakka kingdom really had to have messed with his brain more than he was willing to admit, even to himself.

"Go to sleep to catch what you missed." the algae-head's hoarse voice reached the cook's ears, as he settled his sack into the corner, beside the pair of swords, sitting down and leaning his back against the stuffed luggage. Apparently he was talking with his animal companion, as the mentioned one gave out a chirp that could have been interpreted as a denial.

"Whatever you want, but don't complain to me about it later." the redhead gave out a warning with a huge yawn, before he snuggled himself into the faded cloth of his wide yukata, closing both of his eyes shut. At that, the falcon jumped down from the railing, not bothering to spread its wings as it landed on top of the red head, settling itself there. From Sanji's perspective, it looked like it was their usual sleep setup, though he wondered why.

In a matter of seconds, he could feel the redhead's consciousness to drift into light sleep with a speed that would make even Zoro envious, and then, he decided to take his chance.

Tiptoeing, he made a few wary steps closer and then he felt a piercing glare drilling hard holes into his blonde locks. Lifting his eye up a bit, he was confronted with a pair of black, beady eyes, measuring him in a threatening manner.

"And you expect me to be scared of you?" the cook smirked smugly, confident enough to defeat the falcon, if it would ever come down into such a riddiculous fight. Something flashed through the falcon's eyes that made the cook stop in his pace completely. An unnerving feeling began to spread through his being and then, he realized, one of the redhead's eyes was opened up by a half, letting the cerulean blue flash out from under the lid.

Warily taking a half step back, he noticed the eyelid drop down, closing the eye shut, much to his confusion. Carefully closing the distance by a half step again, he watched, how the eye opened up and then retracted, confirming its shutting down. It was about a five meters radius, where lied the boundary of this amusing phenomenon. Smirking with malignity, the awakened, playful side of the cook, nudged him to repeated those actions. Enjoying the reactions he was receiving, Sanji completely ignored the fact that the falcon sweat-dropped for real and covered briefly its head with his wing in a parody on a human-like face palm.

* * *

Looking back behind himself every few steps, the doctor wanted to be sure, that Zoro was still standing there. Comforted by that fact, Chopper warily tiptoed across the Sunny's deck, feeling a bit better, when he knew about the silent support from behind.

It wasn't like he completely dropped down his anxiety and fear, induced by the redheaded passenger, but his urge to straighten some issues was stronger than that. Well, and the wish to be like Zoro, fearless and confident, could have also been counted as one of the reasons.

Still kneading his medical backpack, he closed the distance even more, fighting his urge to run away on the spot. That troublesome feeling the redhead was inducing inside his partially animal brain wasn't really helping him to overcome this trial. Looking at the peacefully sleeping pirate, Chopper stopped his pace and glanced up at the curious falcon, who slightly shifted itself, staring down at him.

Upon realizing, that the passenger was sleeping, the doctor felt his stomach drop down. He come this far and now he had to stop and try it again next time. But he really didn't want to push his luck and try to wake the sleeping man. Something had been telling him, it might be the last thing he would ever try.

"Need something?" came out the question in a slightly muffled voice, as the sleeper cracked his eyes open to measure another disturbance of his sleep.

For a second, Chopper again considered flight, fighting that urge. But when he felt Zoro's eye at his back, he mustered all the courage he could put together, and faced the situation head on. Shifting his own eyes aside, the reindeer was unable to look into those odd orbs directly, for now avoiding eye contact at all costs.

Quietly sighing at the expected, all too familiar reaction, the sleepy redhead closed both eyes, clearly not wanting to startle the already frightened creature even more.

"Sorry about that, I didn't want to startle you." the redhead's voice was surprisingly soft and calming, despite a clear hoarse creak in it, that made Chopper wondering whether it's was already the work of cold, or something else. Then, he remembered, this particular feature was present from the very beginning.

"T-that's ... not your fault ..." the reindeer beeped apologetically, slowly realizing that the redhead didn't feel offended by his reaction and that there wasn't the slightest hint of attack or movement from pirate's side either. Even the feeling of grave danger dropped down quite a lot, despite being still at least partially present. "We can't pick what we look like." he tried to offer his opinion, over which he spent quite few years of thinking, before he finally accepted it in himself as a integrated part of his being. Knowing all too well how painful it is to be rejected because of a difference in look, Chopper felt guilty for almost doing the same thing to someone, who didn't try to hurt or endanger him in any way. Well, technically speaking, threatening to sink the ship probably wasn't the most peaceful announcement that could have been made, but he decided to put that matter aside.

Tilting his head to the side, cracking the eyes open just enough to see through the eyelashes, the sleepy pirate pulled out a slightly surprised look, crowned with a thoughtful frown. At the same time, the falcon decided it would be nice to turn the watch again, sticking its head under one of its wings and ostensibly drifted off to his share of sleep.

"Can't disagree with that." the pirate widely yawned out, jaws almost popping out of the joints. Despite the subject inside words, it didn't sounded sarcastically at all, which slightly surprised Chopper, along with the calm, friendly tone. "Although it's certainly a better solution not to be bothered with such a _minor details_ at all." the redhead stretched like cat, his vertebraes and joints popping, leaving him slightly grimacing, the sounds sending the chills up to the Chopper's spine.

That was a new point of view for the insecure doctor, something, he never really though about. It sounded kind of logical, since it wasn't him who had the problem with how he looked like at the beginning. It were the other people around him, who drove him into his former position. And after that, he had picked up their problem as his own, being kind of forced to feel like unwanted outlaw.

Despite the fear, Chopper couldn't help himself but to feel a sudden rush of sympathy towards the foreign pirate. Looking down at his backpack, the crumpled victim of his nervous kneading, he remembered why he had come here in the first place.

But how he should approach? Should he ask straight away? Won't it be too insulting or rude? Won't Joyce feel offended by his concern? All kinds of questions whirled through the little, insecure brain.

Tilting his head to the side, the pirate slightly frowned, looking at how puzzled the little creature was, wondering about the possible reasons for this insecurity. 'Could he be that sensitive to feel it so strongly?' Joyce wondered, deciding to drop his precautions almost completely off.

"I'm sorry, I woke you up ... " Chopper began to talk, not quite sure what to say, trying to avoiding direct questioning for as long as possible.

"You didn't, Lissy did." the pirate slightly gestured towards the sleeping falcon on his head.

"Uhm ... okay ..." the reindeer beeped shyly. It was written all over his cute face that he want to ask so badly, but doesn't have a courage to do that.

"You know, if you want to ask something, just do it. It's not like I'm going to bite your head off just because you are curious ..." the redhead offered friendly, trying to assure Chopper, that whatever was has on his mind was not a problem for him. "The worst thing that could possibly happen is that I won't answer."

Great ease washed over Chopper's mind upon realizing it would not be taken as an insult if he openly showed his curiosity and concern. Even more, when that feeling dropped almost completely down. There still were some lingering remains, but it was more like a shadow, similar of what he felt from Zoro all the time. Like a reminder, alert, not to push this certain person too close to his boundaries, and with that they could coexist much easier.

"Guess, you feel better now." Joyce smiled warmly, upon seeing, how the insecurity dropped down from the little creature like a great stone. It was like dealing with a kid once he found a way towards the little doctor. His sensitiveness inwardly surprised the redhead. From his past experiences, Zoan types were never so sensitive towards these things, being formerly humans. It made him wonder what kind of creature it was. Or could it be that this ability was a unique to him, casted upon by his devil fruit?

"A ... areyouhurt?" Chopper suddenly blurted out in a sudden rush of courage, his little mouth not being quite able to keep up with the speed of his thoughts.

"What?" Joyce snapped from his inner thoughts, confused.

"If .. if you are hurt ... somewhere ..." Chopper mumbled again, shifting his gaze nervously around.

"Do I look like that?" the redhead wondered supporting his chin with a hand. Of course, there were some issues he was undergoing right now, but it was nothing medical care could help him with. Some things just needed a rest to be fixed again.

"Your eye ... voice ... wrists ... chest ... your body seems to be in pain too ..." The the fact, that this little creature noticed his current state to such extent greatly surprised the red-headed pirate. He was sure he had hid all symptoms, that nothing could reveal his problems to the others, but such a deep insight was completely off scale from his expectations. Not mentioning the sudden genuine concern, he heard in that insecure, shy voice.

"And why should that matter to you?" Joyce slightly frowned, his mind immediately offering all kinds of different explanations for such an interest about his well being, which most of them suggested the danger of his current state being used as a disadvantage against him. The last thing he was even willing to think about or believe was, that this little creature really, and truly deeply cared about him in such selfless way, even more given the fact that it was just a mere few hours since they had met each other. Counting in the circumstances of such meeting, and to believe in a such innocent concern, would be more than just simply ridiculous.

"I'm ... I'm a doctor." Chopper showed his crumpled backpack, hiding his face behind it, to show a white cross, running across the cloth lid.

"Well, that would explain quite a lot of things." Joyce mused, rubbing his chin in sudden understanding. Questioning the truth of such an announcement was futile, on the Grand Line, everything was possible and with that, Joyce was willing to take in everything that fate decided to thrown at him. What was considered weird and unnatural was perfectly fine within the harshest sea of the world. So such a creature, claiming to be a doctor, wasn't really too surprising. "Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine, really. Nothing a good rest won't fix." he smiled warmly, clearly pleased with this nice gesture.

"Another _idiot_ on board ... why does the doctor have to be me ... " Chopper sniffed in sudden stroke of desperation into his backpack, unable to stop this comment from leaving his mouth. That sounded too much like Zoro, for his professional taste. If all swordsmen were so dumb and ignorant towards their bodily states, he should hurry and invent the cure for idiocy as soon as possible or there wouldn't be any sword wielders left at all.

"Eh?" Joyce was completely dumbfounded by sudden the revelation, snapping the doctor back to the reality, as he took a few careful steps back, hiding behind his backpack even more, like some kind of defense.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean that! Really!" the doctor squeaked in sudden dread, realizing what he just let out.

Just as Joyce opened his mouth for a response, a warning swirl of killing intent emanating from somewhere from the darkness, covering the rest of the deck, made him slightly smirk.

* * *

**Illustration:**_** Refugee** ( jittuse dot deviantart dot com slash art/Refugee-375065315?q=gallery%3Ajittuse&qo=0 )_

* * *

_Being kind of forced to stay at home for two days really helped me to think about this chapter and pull it out. Maybe the work is getting on my brain more, than I want to admit, using the hidden reserves at the cost of writing ... :X_

_Anyway, chapter is out, and I'll try to start working at the next one :) Though, who knows, when it will come out, I'll try to publish it within a reasonable time ... ideas are present, but I need to pull them together (that costs awful lot of time, every chapter :X :D)_

_Hope you enjoyed this chapter! __Let me know your opinions please ... ;)_

_Jitt_


	8. 08: Crisis at hand

_Thousand thanks to _**SadEcho****_, _**_for ... well ... usual stuff *blushing*. I should really learn how to express my endless gratitude in another words ... _

_Added some illustrations for the chapters 2, 6 and 7. No coloring, just outlines._

_I do not own One Piece, just love to mess with its characters in my own ways :)_

* * *

_**Warning:**__ Language, bits of adult suggestions_

* * *

_Misunderstandings here, misunderstandings there ... sometimes, the life is full of them. But when the crisis come, they need to patiently wait with their explanation, until their time will come again._

* * *

Looking at Chopper, as he was looking over his shoulder back at him every few steps, Zoro sat down on the deck, supporting his back against the railing. Maybe it wasn't the best time to meditate right now, but well, one doesn't know when he will be interrupted again. Even now, when his hammock was occupied, sitting at the deck was a far better solution than trying to sleep on the couch in the men's room.

Drifting slowly through his thoughts, Zoro was still prepared to snap out of it immediately and act, if something was about to go wrong in Chopper's plan. Though he wasn't very fond of their newest passenger, and didn't really understand the little doctor's motives, he just couldn't turn him down. No one would ever guess that the mighty, scary, demonic, pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro had a soft spot for a cute little reindeer doctor. Or that he had any soft spot at all, nor even a heart when it came deeper down.

But as soon as he closed his eye the picture his mind offered to him made him wonder if this part of him was just joking or simply just tried to piss him off. The last thing he wanted to see right now was that idiotic wide grin, that haunted the swordsman for some time now.

* * *

_"Fucking ... assholic ... shitty ... idiotic ... redheaded ... good-for-nothing ... pain-in-the-ass ..." Zoro huffed, elbows deep in a soapy water. Viciously, one plate after another was scrubbed, while his ego was occupied with finding all kinds of names for the cause of his problems. If it wasn't for that man, he wouldn't be stuck here and forced to deal with an irritated Shakky. "If I ever get my hands on him, he will regret the day he was born!" He felt pretty humiliated, being forced to work in the kitchen. Though, despite their mutual opinions of each other, he secretly began to admire Sanji for being able to do this kind of work for almost his whole life, with a pure joy on top of that, since he personally found it especially annoying._

_Good thing his issued two days were ending today. It was already two years since all the strawhats had gathered, and he was looking forward to it. Though the memories of Nami made him slightly cringe and the one's about Sanji's maliciously smirk. Still, he couldn't wait to see all of his nakama again. But being the kind of man he was, Zoro would never admit it out loud. _

_"Finally." Zoro exhaled, glad, that this ordeal was behind him. He tried to look at the whole thing as some kind of training, but soon he found that pretty much impossible. The only thing it gave him was a pained neck and shoulders from being bent over the sink for past two days. Stretching his arms and back and groaning with satisfaction as he heard his joints pop and loosen a bit, he decided a good drink might improve his mood a little._

* * *

_"Hell, where are all the pubs hiding?" The swordsman frowned, trying to figure out why he couldn't find even an one inn wherever he went. "Why do the surroundings change all the time?" he grunted, turning back from the supposed way he had just came from, and marched back. _

_Well, it wasn't exactly "back" since he took the left way, but try to explain that to Zoro ..._

_As he wandered through Sabaody, some commotion caught his ears. He wasn't really interested in what was happening there, but as it drew closer, the swordsman recognized the much too frequent word that his mind had been teasing him with through the past two days. _

_"Akagami! Just you wait!" someone yelled, pretty pissed off. "Cut off his path! Catch him at all costs!"_

_"It's Akage, you idiot, Akage! Hell, get your ears checked! And your eyes too while you're at it if you can't tell the difference!" the hoarse voice was screaming in the answer._

_Like a flash, something red sprinted very close to him, almost leaving burning traces carved into the ground._

_The red that suddenly flashed through his one-eyed vision had nothing to do neither with the color of the hair, nor the color of the yukata, of the chased person. _

_"You!" the swordsman roared, launching his own hunting party. No way he would let that bastard escape out of his reach ever again ..._

* * *

"Oi." A sharp nudge to his ribs dragged the meditating man back to reality. Normally he would be pretty pissed off, but since he didn't really want to watch this particular memory, it was a welcomed distraction, even it came in a such form.

"What."

"The hell you are doing there? Sleeping problems, Marimo? Really?" the amusement in Sanji's voice was more than obvious.

"Are you just bored or simply scared of the dark, curly-brow?"

"Nah, cut out that crap." Sanji waved it off in a manner, that surprised the swordsman. Sanji not participating in their argument? Did the hell just freeze? "Just wanted to tell you, I found something really interesting."

"Are you ill?" Zoro wondered as he stood up, pressing his palm on the other's forehead, ignoring what the cook was telling to him. "You should ask Chopper for a checkup, I think your brain went crazy from all that noodling around the sea witch and Robin."

"What the hell are you are doing, idiot!" The cook briefly slapped Zoro's hand aside. "And don't speak about the sweet Nami-swan like that, or I'll kick your ass!"

"To hell with '-swan' ... " the swordsman cringed, upon remembering that he wouldn't be able to return to his comfortable hammock any time soon. He would rather not try to explain why the navigator was claiming his sleeping place, because Sanji would never understand. Maybe he would. But he would also be so jealous, making it nerve wrecking in the end. With that on his mind, Zoro plopped down again in an attempt to resume his meditation.

"Hey ... " Sanji's wondering voice disturbed his meditation even before he started it again.

"What."

"Where's Nami?" The cook frowned when he didn't find the navigator with his Haki at her usual sleeping place. This new power sure came in handy, as he didn't need to risk his neck to check them personally.

"Showing your true colors?" Zoro smirked with hardly suppressed amusement. "After all that 'I'm not a pervert' crap you were claiming before?"

"I'm not a stalker!" Sanji literally jumped up like being sting by a bee, being caught by the word "I'm just worried about her and Robin-chwan's well being!"

"Yeah, like hell. But don't worry, she is completely fine," he yawned out.

"What do you mean 'completely fine' if she is not in her ..." sudden realization struck Sanji, as he spread his Haki further. "You ... you shitty, idiotic Marimo, what the hell you did do with my sweet Nami-swan?!" the cook hissed, immediately turning bright red, steam of pure revenge coming out of his nose.

"Nothing. She came to me 'cause she was worried." Zoro inwardly sighed and face-palmed. This was exactly the situation he was hoping to avoid at all costs. But on the outside he just grunted it out like nothing unusual happened.

"To sleep in your hammock, like hell I'll believe you!" If he didn't want to alarm the whole ship, Sanji would be probably screaming out loud with anger. "Nami is a nakama, you peanut-sized brain! Do you even know what that means?!"

"Hell, like I would ever want to have something with that bossy witch!" Zoro snapped in a low voice, knowing too well what the cook was referring to. "Going into her panties would be like suicide for anyone who would ever dare to try that!"

That was partially the truth, since no one could be sure, with what kind of demand Nami would come up with after that ... and being indebted for the rest of ones life was probably the best thing one could await after such an attempt. No, messing with Nami was never considered a good idea in any way, shape, or form. Maybe for one night, and then run away for the rest of your life, but definitely not in the long run.

"Besides, just thinking about that makes me feel even more sick, than it sounds!"

For Zoro, Nami was more like sister than the subject of a lust. He never denied her beauty, even if he never praised her out loud, but seriously ... who would want to harass his, almost, sister?

"_What did you say_?!"

"The truth. Bear with it."

"Like hell you would ever recognize the difference between the man and woman, shitty Marimo!"

"What the hell are you implying, Mr. 'I-will-bleed-out-just-from-stealing-a-glance-at-w oman'?!"

"_You..._"

Just as Sanji lifted his leg high up to the air, in attempt to slam Zoro right down through the deck, Chopper's frightened voice reached their ears from the opposite side of the ship.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean that!"

* * *

"Hey, don't be so tense ... what's wrong?" Joyce grinned at the sudden reaction.

"You ... you're not mad?" the doctor asked shyly and with great uncertainty. He had expected everything from some kind of death glare to a straightforward attack, but not something like this. It was his first time witnessing a stranger being called an idiot and taking it so calmly. Especially coming from a pirate, being addressed to another pirate.

"Nope, to tell the truth, I've already heard worse. On top of that ... I have to admit, that in some situations, I, indeed, am or at least behave like one ... ehehe" The redheaded pirate rubbed at his nose in slightly sheepish gesture. At least one thing was fixed in what little time remained, until that amusing duo arrived.

"Z-Zoro! Sanji!" Chopper screamed in shock, as he spotted two of his nakama filled with murderous intent rushing towards them, just now realizing, what kind of misunderstanding he had just caused. "S-stop! He's hu - _aaaaah_!" The doctor didn't even have a chance to end the sentence, when a dark skinned hand grabbed him from behind at the collar of his T-shirt and swiftly shoved him out of the way, landing him safely aside onto the soft sailor's sac.

Upon the swift movement, the falcon spread its wings, and with quiet flapping left Joyce's head, settled itself on the railing. Aware, that the blonde man had darted around to retrieve his crewmate, the redhead turned his attention towards the swordsman standing before him.

"Well, aren't you a bit agitated?" The genuinely wondering, but slightly scowling, Joyce asked; his body was still relaxed, despite another danger of being attacked. "Both of you, so ungracefully interrupting our private talk."

"Chopper, is everything fine?" Sanji asked, setting the doctor back down on the deck as the questioned nodded. The cook turned his eye towards the unmoving redhead, observing his staring competition with Zoro.

"_Stop _that_ messing _of yours," the swordsman ground out in a warning tone. His left hand was ready, positioned over the hilt of Sandai Kitetsu that had partially been flicked out of its sheath. 'No jokes here. Do something stupid and I _will_ kill you.'

"_Messing..._?" Joyce grimaced, feeling kind of touched by such accusation. "You call _this _a_ messing_? Man, if I had _started _to_ mess _with you, trust me, you _would _recognize it _instantly_." He shook his head, smirking with amusement. "Or is that, that you _want me to mess with you for real_?" A roguish grin with two mischievous sparks in the depths of those odd eyes sent a strange shivers up to Zoro's spine.

"You _messed_ with _me_.. _us_...," the swordsman corrected himself, "e_nough already_." He grinned devilishly, answering the obvious challenge. "The _only thing_ that's still _keeping you healthy _is Luffy's acknowledgment of your sorry ass. _The moment he changes his opinion_, _I'm_ going to _finish _what _you started_."

"Then I will certainly _look forward to that_. Maybe, to make things _more interesting_, I should also _start _my_ messing _with you _for real? _Then it will be even _more fun_..." The redheads wolfish grin became even wider.

"_Aete suru_," Zoro challenged outright, leaning closer down to sitting Joyce. "If you ever _happen to find the balls _for that." His dangerous aura thickened in the atmosphere, clearly displaying his potential threat.

"Finding _them_ would be an _awful _waste of time, since to _do something like this_, I _technically_ _don't need _to have_ any balls _at all. How _lucky _for me, isn't it?. " Joyce rose up a bit to close some of the distance between them too. Both of the swordsmen's faces were a mere inches from each other, completely locked in their mutual challenging. What they started a mere few hours ago, already had bloomed into something that resembled serious mutual measurement of two pretty big egos, if not of something else and much worse. Or some really creepy kind of flirting.

" ... the hell?" Sanji frowned, looking at the duo who had switched from the verbal challenging to plain, yet still challenging, growling.

If the challengers would lean in a bit more, they would have definitely tried to push each other with their foreheads like two hard-headed rams to measure themselves.

"Hey, you shit-headed Marimo, what's with you?" One second the swordsman wants to kill that obnoxity on the spot, and in the next one he challenges him in such a manner? "Do you even know _what_ you _want_ to do?"

"Am I seeing things, or did someone over there just turned solid green with jealousy?" A roguishly grinning Joyce turned her attention to the cook, who instantly went red.

"Like hell I would be jealous of something so _stupid_ like this!" the cook screamed so loud, it made the falcon whistle in annoyance. Not even out of reach could it get its sleep; what a shame!

"Sanji, no! He's _hurt_ already!" Chopper finally recovered himself out of shock by those loud sounds. Rushing before crouched Joyce, he tried to defend him from Sanji's kicks, he knew might came. But the dark skinned hand stopped his progress again, clearly telling him to stay out of this. "Stop provoking him, _please_!" he tried to plead with the redheaded pirate.

"You are even less fun than the Greenie." Joyce pouted in disappointment, his hand dropping down as soon as Chopper stopped his movement, staying out of it. "He's at least willing to play with me _a little_, unlike _you_. Blondie meanie." The pirate stuck out his tongue at the cook in a mean gesture, ignoring the doctor's attempts to calm the situation down.

"Like hell I would play with you!" Sanji roared .

"I'm not going to play with you!" Zoro immediately reacted to the redheads words, his mood swinging from challenge into irritation in a split of second again. Inwardly, it left him wondering, if this obnoxity has some kind of talent for manipulating people's moods around him. Certainly, his ability to kill an exciting moment with a mere one remark had to be some kind of rare talent.

***SMACK* **A boot, that came flying from somewhere within the darkness, hit Sanji squarely over his head.

"_Ow_! The hell...?!" the cook snapped back, but the only thing he could sensed was a pretty pissed off sharpshooter.

"Shut up you idiots! There are human beings, who need regular sleep, unlike you monsters!" Usopp's angry-at-being-awakened voice resonated over the Sunny's deck. The crashing of the door being swung shut with considerable force that followed right after was even more surprising, given the usual sharpshooter's insecurity.

" ... "

"U-Usopp?"

"Serves you right, ero-cook."

" ..._pffft_!"

"Shut up you damn Marimo! And you! Stop giggling, you shitty algae-head!"

"Okay gentlemen ..." Joyce tried to suppress another amused giggle and clapped his hands to drag attention to himself as he settled back to his position, sitting against the railing. "Let's calm down and go back to whatever we were doing before this little misunderstanding. As amusing as it would be to play with you two right now, I think I'll prefer to continue my peaceful talking with this little ... " the redhead unexpectedly trailed off.

"Hey ..." Sanji scowled, uncertain, about what the sudden pause should mean. "What's with him?" he turned towards the similarly confused swordsman.

"Dunno, maybe you broke him when you called him algae-head?" Zoro closed the distance he created during the intrusion, now standing right before the redhead, who suddenly went silent in the middle of a sentence, staring with a blank face and unfocused gaze somewhere into the hard wood of the Sunny's deck, both palms pressed against it, balancing in a squat on tips of his bare feet.

"Like hell he would have broken down just from something like that!"

"J-Joyce?" Chopper cautiously waved his hoof before the pirate's face.

"Ah sorry." The redhead flinched a bit, sheepishly smiling while messing his wild hairdo. "I got a bit carried away ..." He turned his look towards the falcon and exchanged a brief glance with the bird. Upon that, the animal spread its wings, and with sharp flapping, disappeared into the night. "Well, _this_ is going to be_ interesting_..." the redhead hummed with hardly suppressed excitement as he got up on his feet, settling himself in his yukata, and headed towards his luggage.

"_What _are you scheming?" Zoro scowled even more, if it had been already possible. The sudden change in Joyce's behavior was giving out kind of unsettling feeling.

"Zoro!" Chopper tugged at Zoro's pants, trying to calm the swordsman down.

"Nothing much," the redhead pointed out casually.

Untucking the ends of his green sash, tied firmly around his hips so they were hanging loosely down, almost touching the deck, he took out his whip and almost closing the front side of his yukata leaving it partially opened, he secured it with the two rounds of the ends of his sash around his hips. The pirate scooped his swords and tucked them back behind the upper layer of his makeshift obi, positioning both weapons behind the small of his back. Braided, leather whip found its place at the redhead's left side, at his sash, again. "I'm merely preparing myself for a crash."

Instantly, Zoro's blade shot towards Joyce's neck. "_What _do you_ mean?!_" he snarled in demand, not quite giving the pirate room to refuse the answer.

The redhead's eyes slowly slid along the sharp blade before looking back at the green-haired man. As much amusing as it was to poke this man's ego, right now it wasn't the best idea to waste too much time on that.

"Within a half of hour, at best, this ship is going to sink down, crashing into, I dare estimate, some kind of shelf or reef. That is, if you don't wake up your navigator and helmsman and actually do something to prevent that from happening. Personally, I would really appreciate if you actually _would_ take that action, since I don't really want to be drenched again when I _just_ dried off."

"Like hell your well being matters to us." Sanji voice rose up. His extent of caring for this particular person ended with feeding him so he wouldn't starve. Nothing more was necessary. "We don't have _any_ reason to listen, what you say, nor even_ trust_ you."

"I didn't say you _should_ trust me; Feel free to make your _own_ decision." The redhead shrugged his point carelessly off, unaffected. "I merely gave out an advice and presented my own preference." With that, he swiftly tied his sack to the railing.

"Zoro! Sanji!"

The swordsman's attention was dragged towards the alarmed voice of the mikan-headed navigator, who just slammed the constantly abused door of the deck wide open. "Get ready! We have to change the course, before ..." she hadn't the chance to end her sentence, because the Sunny suddenly shuddered, tilting to the side, as it changed its original course within a second.

* * *

"Shhh!" Franky cautiously placed a finger from his smaller hand over his lips to silence Usopp, who just entered the men's room as silently as possible after cautiously tiptoeing into the furthest corner possible from Zoro's hammock. It was already bad enough, with Zoro and Sanji arguing so loudly, since they were clearly heard even in the underbelly.

"I _hate_ you, guys." Usopp wiped his forehead, beads of sweat uncomfortably chilly on his skin. "Why does it have to be me?! Do you know how scary it was?!" he whispered with urgency.

"Because you picked the shortest straw, yohohoho!" Brook chimed in a very, very quiet way.

"How did you managed to do that in such short time, anyway?" Franky wondered, almost mouthing his words.

"I just threw a boot at them ... " The sharpshooter heavily blushed, fiddling with fingers in embarrassment. "And it kind of happened to land on Sanji's head ... from what I heard. It's pitch black out there, not even the stars are shining."

"That had to be a super view!" the cyborg grinned widely, resisting the urge to proceed into his trademark pose.

"Good thing it worked." Brook released a sigh of relief. "My heart almost stopped dead ... though I don't have any! Yohohoho!"

"They should be more considerate of us, especially Zoro ... " Usopp was almost shedding quiet, bitter, tears of desperation. "... When he allowed her to stay there ... moreover, if Sanji will ever finds out ... " The sharpshooter shuddered, not being courageous enough to continue in that though.

A muffled groan came from Luffy's hammock, causing all three remaining men to whip their heads in alarm towards that place.

"Hey, Franky, are you sure you silenced him enough?" Usopp was worried, looking at the pile of tightly tied bedsheets across the captain's head. "It's Luffy we are talking about!"

"Well, snoring should be completely muted by now ..." the cyborg mused, scratching with his smaller hand at his buzz cut. "But his vocals during the actual dreaming might require another few layers as reinforcement."

"Then let's do it really fast, before he can start." The sharpshooter briefly scanned the room, counting their options.

Luffy was a hard sleeper, but his snoring and the tendencies to vocalize his inner thoughts during the actual dreaming process was something that one would have to somewhat learn to cope with, if he wanted to get at least some sleep. In most cases, simple earplugs usually provided enough obliviousness to sleep through anything.

But the fact that the rubber captain often simply got up from his hammock, and still half-asleep (in the worst and most frequent case, since it ensued bigger catastrophe), headed right to the kitchen for a "small" midnight snack, was pretty hard to eliminate let alone cope with. So in a tough and dangerous situation like this, any method couldn't be considered as too inhumane. It was solely for the purpose of preventing the navigator from being woken up.

A quiet sigh escaped from Zoro's hammock, and everyone awake stiffed on the spot, not even breathing. Having almost one whole year worth of experiences with the cranky navigator upon being abruptly disturbed from her activities, which also included sleeping, fully justified their current level of cautiousness. And now, when the slender body started to toss and turn, the trio started to seriously consider taking the nearest cover to survive the first, incoming blast.

* * *

It was wrong. Something felt so wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. Fumbling her hand around, she instantly realized the missing body heat of a swordsman. From the three rapid heartbeats and one loud snoring, she could tell, that at least Usopp, Brook, Franky and Luffy were there, so she should be able to resume her sleeping with ease. But still, it didn't help to ease that nagging feeling, gradually growing inside her head.

Tossing and turning on the bed, she tried to get it out of her mind. If something happened on board, whoever currently held the watch would immediately come down here. But still ...

Was it her imagination, or had someone just yelled out? Nami wondered if her ears are just deceiving her, but in the end she decided to pass that matter to another person to solve. Quiet clicking of the doors assured her, that it might not be her imagination or a dream.

As that person returned, she could hear a very cautious and quiet whispering, so quiet, she couldn't put her finger on who it was. Someone was talking, that was clear, but the subject of the discussion was hard to decipher.

Twisting, as she groaned quietly, she changed her position again when the uneasy feeling intensified. A split second ago her instincts finally clicked together. With a gasp Nami sprang up, almost falling out from the hammock thanks to its unstable nature, ignoring the three strangled gasps of horror as she did so.

"The flow ..." she muttered, instantly sorting her thoughts and analyzing the situation before she jumped out of the hammock, throwing the blanket off. "Franky! ... Usopp? ... Brook?" She turned towards the said man, inwardly sweat dropping, as she found the sharpshooter and the musician hiding behind Franky's impressive frame. All three were pressed into the furthest corner from her current position. Not bothering to think about the meaning, bare footed, and just in her pajamas, she sprinted out of the door. "Everyone get on board! We need to adjust the course!"

With that, the navigator disappeared in the galley, leaving the trio sighing with relief.

"I think we just survived a disaster." Usopp added as all of them darted for the deck.

* * *

"Zoro, Sanji!" Nami yelled out. "Get ready! We have to change the course before ..." She didn't have the chance to end her sentence when Sunny suddenly shuddered, tilting itself to the side, making her stagger a bit.

"Nami-swan!" Sanji was instantly at the side of his favorite navigator, catching her before she lost her balance. "Are you all right, my dear?!"

"Too late, it just caught us." Nami whispered with a hint of fear in her voice "The current ... we need to get out of here and fast!"

Zoro's glare slid back across Joyce, who, with a wide, lazy gesture and the eloquent expression, motioned his hand towards the alarmed navigator. Even without words, the swordsman could practically feel what was going on in the redhead's mind; he didn't like it in the slightest. "_Here we go ... what did I just tell you?_"

"Shut up." The swordsman rumbled in warning, darting towards the navigator, who hastily began to explain what was happening and how to prevent it.

"But I said nothing, Greenie." That annoying amused grin _again_.

"Then keep it that way!"

Screw that smug, laid-back bastard. As much as he wanted to kill that redhead on the spot, not bothering to count for how many times in a row in a such short time, they obviously had other, more pressing, problems at the moment.

The revenge would have to wait for now, for another time. And Zoro, being Zoro, would definitely want to sort the things out in a fight.

* * *

**Notes:**

Aete suru - Dare to try (that)

* * *

_**Illustration:**_ _I have something in my mind, but it needs to be settled down :)_

* * *

_Uuuff ... that took some quite time. I though I'll be able to pull this chapter out sooner, but well ... my mind had another idea. Being stuck in the blind way just ... suck. :X_

_Anyway; hope you enjoyed this chapter and be sure to leave a review! (My muse wants dessert, after such a hard work! ;))_

_And I'm going to work at the chapter nine ;)_

_Jitt_


	9. 09: Putting the skills together

**SadEcho**_ is the best! Thanks for beta-reading, your advices, correction and you-know-what-else ;)_

_I don't own One Piece, just love to mess with the characters in my own way._

* * *

**Warning:** _a _LOT_ of cussing_

* * *

_Sometimes, the circumstances will force you to cooperate with the least expected person ... and maybe not for the last time._

* * *

Sunny, dangerously swaying under their feet, was caught in a strong and quickly speeding up current. Like a splinter in the raging rapids, water had been tossing and turning the ship around at mere whim. One doesn't need to be an outright genius to guess that the big problems were just ahead, moreover when the darkness had successfully complicating all attempts for observing the sea around.

"Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Brook! Take care of the sails! Franky, you're steering, try to steady Sunny and illuminate the way ahead of us! After that, I'll give you the next coordinates!" Nami was back in her element, like a captain, standing at the bridge, yelling orders at all sides.

Sunny's eyes lit up, sending two cones of bright yellow into the darkness, illuminating the angry waves and the visibly fast and wide current. Nami's face started to pale. Not too far before them, thanks to Sunny's bright eyes, everyone could see the hard, and high rocks, glistening with wetness as if the waves were trying to chomp at them. It wouldn't be so bad, if the actual size of this obstacle weren't approximately three size of the whole Sunny and a bit more as a bonus. But, the most frightening thing out there was the sight of many different shipwrecks, scattered across the rocks like as if some small child threw around its toys in affected rage. These parts of ships, in various sizes and shapes, were all shattered to the point of complete destruction. Presumably they had shattered upon the direct impact. The reefs just highlighted the already dangerous feeling this place successfully instilled in anyone who came near.

"There's some rocks ahead!" Franky announced cheerfully, firmly holding the steering. "One Coupt de Burst and we will fly past them like nothing! Usopp? Go load a cola barrel!"

"Working on it!"

"_No!_" Nami screamed in panic, "We _can't_ get past that rocks at _any_ cost! That's the Hollow sea before us!"

"Hollow sea?" Luffy's curious voice made Nami almost jump out of her skin when it suddenly sounded from behind her. "That sound's like fun!"

"_Luffy_!"

"I would agree with Nami-san. It wouldn't be the best idea to cross those reefs. Is there any way to avoid them?" Robin came from a door, woken up by sudden commotion on the deck.

"Franky! Hard to starboard!" The navigator lashed the order out, and the cyborg immediately complied. Pulling the steering to the starboard, he tried to maneuvre the ship out of the current, but it was already too strong for a small rudder to be able to overcome it.

"It won't do! The waves are too strong! Usopp! Set the rear cannon at a 10% and fire! Let's try to get past it with a bit more momentum!"

"Zoro, Sanji, Brook! Furl the sails!" Nami directed to the pirates above, who instantly fulfilled her order.

"Coup de Burst ready!" Usopp's voice came from the underbelly.

"Franky, be _careful_! There are shelves and reefs hidden just under the water surface! Try to avoid _every_ whirl you see!"

"Easier said than done, I can't see a place _without_ them!"

"I'll guide you! Usopp, fire it _carefully_, now! Everyone, brace yourselves!"

Sunny shuddered as the cone of compressed air steadily propelled her against the waves. But the meeting of two antagonistic forces merely caused the ship to jump slightly upwards, like fish, jumping out of the water, until she landed on the wild surface of the sea again. Something scratched hard against the hull upon the landing, most likely a part of the hidden, dangerous reef. Though thankfully, the hard Adam's wood did not get breached.

"Whohou! ... interesting thing, indeed." Joyce quietly muttered for himself, greatly interested in the sudden, surprising blast of air from the rear, which almost catapulted him off of the bathroom's roof. "Where the hell did they get such a thing? That might come in sooo handy ... I definitely have to ask them about that. But it almost blasted my mast off, dammit!" he cursed under his breath, throwing a threatening glare, at the crew. "What the hell do they think they are doing?!"

"_Franky! _That was _too close_!" Nami scolded the cyborg behind the helm, realizing how close they had been from actually shipwrecking.

"There's not enough place to move around besides the main current!"

"We need to get out _at all costs_! If we cross that reef, it's _over_ for us! Can't you fire with more power?!"

"We can't fire more than 10% at once, or it might catapult us right onto the reef!"

"We might also just shipwreck like those other ships around there. Our blood upon the reefs could attract Sea Kings then, if we manage to survive the impact." Robin pointed out casually, with a morbidly curious tone.

"R-r-robin ... you are scaring me ... "Chopper rattled his teeth in dread, plastered on her calf in his usual tiny form.

"What's the Hollow sea anyway?" Zoro wondered, scratching at his mossy-green head.

"The sea that's _hollow_, dumb Marimo!" Sanji lashed out at him in answer. "If our dearest Nami-swan is saying to get out of here, then stop thinking about shit and try to find a way out of here!"

"Same applies to you, Swirly-brow! Stop ranting about women and try to do something _useful_ in this situation!"

"According to the legends," Robin began, braced herself against the railing, as the ship skipped a few waves thanks to colliding forces of the current and the rear air cannon, "it's a mysterious sea, that appears during the moonless nights, when the water is highest at the coast and at its lowest in the middle of the sea. There were reports about it's appearing, but no one was able to get inside and reveal the truth behind this phenomenon. Not without disappearing... never to be seen again. It's rumored, that behind that reef is just a pitch black, bottomless hole that swallows everything that happens to cross the reef."

"That sounds like the White storm, to my ears! Though I don't have any, being just bones! Yohohohohooo!" Brook's unique laugh chimed from the upper yard, where he was helping to keep the sails tied.

"More like the exact description of Luffy's stomach." Sanji sweat-dropped. Certain similarity really couldn't be denied at this point.

"You are right, Brook-san. Certainly, like a White storm, this is also one of the secrets hidden within the Grand Line, waiting to be uncovered," the archaeologist confirmed.

"So it's just some weird, mystery hole in the sea?" Luffy pouted with disappointment upon such realization. "That eats everything that gets too close?" he asked innocently.

"Basically, yes." Robin smiled, looking how her captain's frowning face.

"No fun at all. It might eat all our meat! We can't let that happen." He nodded resolutlely, suddenly changing his previous decision.

"One more time!" Nami's voice brought them back to the reality, though she already knew a miracle would need to occur if they want to survive. Franky was still trying to fight the flow, but without much success. "We _have to_ make it, or we are _done_ for!"

"Ready to fire!" Usopp's voice informed them through the speakers on deck.

Unable to keep still and quiet anymore, Joyce's nerves finally snapped upon seeing the crew's attempts to get out of this tricky situation, and feeling the strain the ship was being put through under his feet. They kept trying the same, in his eyes useless, thing again and again.

"Aaaargh! Hell, I _can't_ watch _this_ anymore!" the frustrated, hoarse yell came from the redheaded pirate, who, until now, had silently been sitting on the roof of the bathroom despite his obvious urge to do something; if the occasional twitching of his body and limbs was any hint. Jumping down from his place, landing on the deck with a soft thud, Joyce quickly paced towards his sack tied to the railing at the rear. His movements were followed with the confused looks of almost everyone present.

"This is _almost_ even _worse_ than watching the marines try, really!" Joyce fumed with mixture of irritation and frustration, rummaging through his luggage before he pulled out a wide, sturdy, and very heavy looking belt. With a satisfying click, the item was secured with a clasp at the front over the green sash. Both of his swords were tucked behind it, though the belt was loosely hanging from the left hip down to the right, too big to fit tight on the hips.

Stomping harshly around, as the strawhats exchanged unsure looks, he stopped just beside Franky, who was occupied with handling the helm.

"Excuse me." The redheaded pirate unceremoniously shoved the huge hands of the cyborg aside, stepping behind the helm himself.

"What are you doing?!" Franky immediately grabbed for the helm, nudging the daredevil aside."Are you _crazy_?!"

"Sorry, but I'm _not_ going to watch this nice ship sink down, thanks for asking. So now, do me a favor and_ move_." The end of the sentence was almost growled out as the redhead reached back for the steering wheel.

"_No way_ I'll let you steer! _Not_ super at all!"

"Like I care about what's 'super' and what's not!"

"Let it go! Let go let go let go_ let go let go_!" Joyce was childishly slapping Franky's steel hands away, trying to get access to the steering.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Zoro roared from the upper yard, where he kept the sails firmly furled up.

"Do you intend to kill us, or what?!" Sanji accented from the other side.

"_Franky_! _Concentrate_ on the steering!" Nami's voice cracked over their hearing like a whip.

"Super easy to say! You! Stop pushing me!" The cyborg tried to win the pushing contest with Joyce, who managed to successfully fight back, despite a huge difference in height.

"Then move aside! _Hush!_" The redhead stepped a bit aside, waving his hands resolutely in exaggerated gestures.

When the cyborg showed no signs of acknowledgment or movement, an irritated expression flashed through Joyce's face. "You deaf, or what?! Hush!"

"_Hush_!" The redhead stomped on the deck a few times, as if he was trying to chase away a child. Immediately, the shipwright felt that he was not going to win this argument, for so strong was the feeling of the stubbornness coming from the firm expression of the redhead, standing slightly crouched before him.

"Stop it you idiot! Oi, Marimo! Stop standing there like moron and _do something_!"

"Says someone who is standing here like a _scarecrow_ in the middle of a field?! How about _you_ moved your own ass _for once_?!"

"Who is a scarecrow there, you shitty Marimo?! Look at yourself, dammit!"

"Zoro, Sanji! Stop bickering and drag him away from Franky! We need to _get out_!"

"Hai, Nami-swaaaaan~!"

"Stop noodling you damn ero-cook, now's _not_ the time for that!" Zoro jumped down and reached for Joyce's arm in order to drag him away, since the redhead and the cyborg were launched in another push-pull competition. But it was like trying to catch a snake; just when he though he had finally grabbed him, in a split of a second, his hand grasped nothing but air.

"Hell, I'll _gladly_ listen to all your complains _later_! But unlike you, I _don't_ want to be drenched again just when I managed to dry myself off! Especially since I would _love_ to keep my current state _intact_ for at least another hour, so get out of the way! You _tried_, you _failed_, now it's _my turn_. Do I make myself _clear_?!" Joyce roared, obviously irritated beyond belief, wrestling three members of the strawhat's at once, avoiding all attempts for oppression.

"Fufufufu ..." The archaeologist couldn't contain her amusement upon seeing such an absurd scene despite the obvious danger they were currently in.

"Robin!" Chopper's frightened and shocked voice scolded her, not quite getting the reason for giggling. Her calm freaked him out, maybe even more than any other reaction she could have had right now.

"Don't worry, Chopper, nothing is really happening." She assured him, yet still smiling.

"We are all going to _die_!" Usopp's terrified scream, about an octave higher than usual, resonated through the underbelly, when he realized the situation on board.

"I _can't_ die, I'm _already_ dead!" Of course, Brook couldn't resist another temptation to throw his skull joke into the chaos, much to Robin's amusement.

"Hell, captain, wouldn't you be so _kind_ to do me a _favor_ by _taming_ your crew a bit?! It's pretty hard to work with _all of them_ breathing at the back of my neck, you know?!" the redhead threw in Luffy's direction. Not surprisingly, the captain was bouncing up and down, sitting in a cross-legged position, greatly enjoying the whole situation.

"Shishishishishi!" Luffy giggled, folding his arms against his chest, slightly tilting his head forward to hide his eyes beneath the brim of his hat, which instantly gave him a pretty mischievous look. A look that secretly scared his crew, because it forebode some kind of …

"Ne, Odd-eye, do it! Let's have fun!"

… insanity. Oh well.

"_Luffy?_!"

"Do _what_?! Did you even _think_ about the possible outcome?!"

"Nope!" The raven-haired boy grinned from ear to ear in complete obliviousness. "What thinking?" He switched instantly into a curious look, tilting his head to the side.

'... someone tell me, it's _not true_ ..." Nami desperately sobbed, face-palming herself over her captain's idiocy. If it was bad two years ago, now it was obviously even worse. Not that anyone believed such a thing was actually even possible.

"You shitty rubber idiot, how _dare_ you make our Nami-swan cry!" Sanji yelled out, red like a tomato, before he turned to comfort his favorite navigator. "Nami-swaaaan~! Have no fear, your knight on the white horse is there to save you~!"

"Damn swirly-brow, pay more attention to our situation and stop your goddamn idiocy!"

"Someone like _you_ could never understand what it _means_ to be a _gentleman_, shitty swordsman!"

"_Gentleman_ my ass. Bleeding and drooling all over the women?!"

"Shut up you _caveman_!"

"Stop it, both of you!"

"_Frankyyyy~_! Let him!" Luffy grinned, unfazed by the complete chaos aboard.

"This person wanted to _sink us_, you shitty rubber head!" Sanji complained, as he viciously pointed at Joyce's direction, trying to drive his point home. Without any success at all.

"Luffy, you _can't _let him steer the Sunny! It's _our_ Sunny!" The cyborg turned at the stubborn, crazy captain, trying to reason with him. The idea of letting a complete stranger to lay a finger at his baby was simply too much for him. "Our _dream ship_!"

"Captains orders!" Luffy exclaimed, throwing his hands up to the air, skyrocketing the meaning of "enthusiasm" to a whole new level.

".. tell me, I'm _dreaming_ …" Nami breathlessly let out, completely shocked. How could be _this_ happening?! This was an absolute _calamity_ they were stuck in!

"Hey, cook! I told you many times _not to_ kick him in the head! Now, there's the end result! _S__atisfied_?!"

"How the hell am I supposed to get _him_ out of the kitchen then, Mr. Smartass?!"

"Then use your _brain_ for once! If there was any shred of reason within him, now it's completely lost!"

"There was _never_ _any_ to begin with, Marimo!"

"Please slowly and calmly board the lifeboats! Don't panic!" Usopp's voice was everything but calming and assuring.

"Women and children first! Nami-swaaaan~! Robin-chwaaaaan~!" Sanji's attention immediately switched at the women.

"Yay!" Luffy exclaimed, rushing to the side of Sunny.

"No, you are _not_ a child Luffy, you are an _idiot_! That _doesn't_ count!" Sanji's foot stopped the rubber man in the midstep by a well aimed stomp towards the captain's face.

"_Stop_ kicking him in the head, dammit! I just told you, he's already stupid enough!"

"Like _this_ could make any difference!"

"We _don't_ have _any_ lifeboats, idiots! Stop fooling around like that!" Nami snapped in irritation.

"It looks like our guest has some ship-handling skills after all." Robin suddenly pointed out in a calm tone, successfully ending the argument. No one during the course of events noticed, that Joyce had finally gotten his hands on the helm and steadied ship on the raging waves, even starting to gain speed thanks to the current. The helm whirred under his deft hands, giving out the feeling that Sunny is literally _purring_ under his firm, yet gentle touch. Yet, his style of steering was different from Franky's, as he was using the waves itself like slopes, to increase momentum by sliding across them instead of over them. Most of all it resembled some kind of slalom. But surprisingly, the ship seemed steady in its movements without unnecessary rippling, just fluidly swaying in regular intervals from side to side.

"This is going to be rough … not much time left." The redhead mused, slightly frowning, as his eyes scanned the situation, flashing from right to left and back. "But don't worry, sweetie, I'm _not_ going to let you go down. I already see the way out." He cheerfully smiled, patting the helm stand, like the ship would be some kind of a pet.

Suddenly the redhead realized how silent his surroundings became, and started to feel the eight pairs of eyes drilling holes into his back. "_Well, just about time_," he thought.

"Hey, are you going to stand there and stare at me like a bunch of idiots, or can I count on your help?" Joyce turned his head towards the mostly pissed off and partially dumbfounded crew. Such impudence was definitely unexpected. "This is going to be one hell of a pain in the ass if I have to do this alone."

Already realizing that there's no way to talk the captain out of his "brilliant" ideas, Nami quickly counted their options. Their attempts had only ended in deadlock, and, given the fact how fast the current was dragging them, it didn't really leave them a better choice. As stupid as their captain's ideas were, his instincts were_ right_ all the time.

She gave up, and quickly paced towards the redhead."_Fine_, so what are you planning?"

"To get us out. I found the way." Joyce replied with hardly suppressed excitement, which secretly scared Nami pretty well. "You are the navigator?"

"Yes."

"Great." Joyce grinned. "Try to guide the ship alongside the waves like I'm doing it right now, _not over_ them as usual. That would slow us down. Can you do it?" The self-confidence tingling in Joyce's voice was kind of calming she had to admit. Whatever Joyce had on his mind, he was pretty sure that it would work.

"Are you doubting me?" Nami narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"I would never dare to, Miss." the redhead winked at her, playfully, which earned him a blazing, jealous glare from Sanji, before he turned towards Franky.

"You _better not_." Nami slid her glare across the pirate. Did he just tried to flirt with her?

"Hey you! Ferro with the speedos!"

"What? You better _not_ inflict a _single scratch_ on this ship." Franky gave up too though, believing Luffy was kind of hard to deal with in times like these.

"Don't worry about that, this ship is too brilliant to be harmed in any way. The steering is reacting to a mere touch, it's a pleasure to maneuvre with her!" Though it might sound like an empty tickling of his ego, Franky couldn't miss the genuine excitement and joy in the pirate's voice, which was only proving he meant every word.

"It's the most super ship, that sailed these seas!" He couldn't resist striking his trademark pose, with a loud metallic clang upon such praise.

"Although, I still kind of prefer my own vessel over anything else. Yet, I can't deny that this ship is really great."

"This ship is _the best_. So what do you want me to do?"

"Whatever." Joyce waved his point off. "See that breakpoint of the waves, on the reef to the left?"

Franky's eyes scanned the appointed side, but whatever the redhead was referring to, it weren't there. "Where exactly?"

"Right over there! On the left!"

The pirate was pointing to the right side.

"Is that on the left or the right?! You are saying one thing and pointing in the other direction!"

"On the left!" Joyce stubbornly pointed at the right side. "_Not_ on the right! On the _left_!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"... does he really know _where_ is he pointing?" Zoro sweat-dropped.

„... is asking the person who is able to get lost in a straight corridor with no side paths?" Sanji jabbed, aiming directly for the swordsman's ego.

„I don't get lost, it's just the surroundings that keep changing!"

„No Marimo, you are _just_ an idiot."

"Damn! _This_ is getting us nowhere!" the redhead cussed. Curling his lips, he gave out a sharp, ear piercing whistle. "Lissy!"

The falcon instantly dropped down from the sky, steadying herself in midair just before Joyce.

"Show them the way towards that wave breakpoint at the left side of that reef. I'll try to aim there for a Gainer."

Lissy questioningly chirped in answer.

"I think I know what you want to say, but no, Rai is not here right now, so we need to do with what we have."

With that, the falcon landed on Franky's round shoulder, content with the answer, as the cyborg stood behind the helm again.

"Rai? Gainer? What is that?" Nami asked confused.

"Rai is who, and Gainer is a kind of maneuver... and none of this is important right now. Hey! You two color-heads over there!" Joyce turned towards Zoro and Sanji.

"Who is the color-head here?!" an irritated yell of unison came from the two men.

"Damn Akage!"

"Shitty Sea urchin!"

"... whatever floats your boat. Now, get back up on the yard. When I say, drop the sails down immediately."

"The hell are you are planning?!"

Joyce completely ignored Zoro's question. "Can I count on you?"

"Sanji! Do it for me, _please_!" Nami decided to step, using her pleading voice and puppy-eyes, when she noticed that both men intended to complain "And Zoro, you _will_ do that, or I'll raise your debt _again_!"

"Hai Nami-swaaaan~!"

"... bossy witch." The swordsman rolled his eyes and shot a glare at the redhead. "You better _not_ to do something _stupid_, or ..."

„... you will kill me, I heard that _already_. _Now_, get your ass up." Joyce rubbed him off, pointing upwards at the upper yard.

"Nice." Sanji snickered upon hearing how the redhead just owned Zoro.

"Shut up, curly-brow!"

"What about us?" Robin asked, clearly meaning herself, Brook and Chopper. Luffy already settled on top of Sunny's head figure, emitting excited sounds in all directions, so no help could be expected from him.

"I would ask you to try to catch anyone who intends to fall off, or help the others if there is a need. Especially keep an eye on that Anchor on the head figure, since I _don't_ really want to fish him out of the sea _again_. Can you do that?"

"Sure." The archaeologist smiled.

"Great." Joyce politely smiled in answer. "And don't forget to hold on tight yourselves!"

"Robin, will it be really okay?" Chopper worriedly asked the archaeologist.

"Who knows …"

„... you are scary, Robin-san …" Brook whispered as a shiver ran through him.

„What about me?! Don't forget the great Captain Usopp!" came the partially angry voice of the sharpshooter, resonating through the underbelly. Even if he was scared, he didn't wanted to be left out.

"I was just going to tell you, Long-nose!" Joyce yelled in answer. "Can you continuously shoot that thing at the rear again? Preferably _without_ blasting my ship apart in the process?"

"I'll try! Just don't kill us, I don't want to die _this_ young!"

"Don't worry!" Joyce grinned. "We need to get as much speed as possible, while still staying at the water surface! I can't tell you right now how much, since I don't have any experience with that kind of gear so start at those ten percents and I'll tell you upon how it will turn out!"

"Roger!"

"I don't like it but it looks like this is our only chance." Nami uttered, letting out her worries.

„I like that even less, but if Luffy said so ..." Franky shrugged in defense.

"Yeah. ... do you believe in a God?"

"Not really. But maybe we should start to pray. There's still a chance that he will be merciful enough to let us and Sunny out of this unharmed."

Like a squirrel, Joyce climbed up the rear mast, standing at the upper yard, facing forward.

"Minna! Let's go!" Luffy' exclaimed, when Joyce opened his mouth to do the same.

"I'm really starting to like his style." He mused quietly to himself.

"I have a _bad_ feeling about this." Zoro frowned, drilling holes into the redhead's back. It didn't make the slightest sense, but if Luffy believed him, then he should do the same. Though very, very reluctantly and carefully.

"Shoot!" Joyce ordered, the rear cannon firing up to life. "Not enough! More!"

The air current from the rear started to propel Sunny forward even more when both the force from the current and the air combined their strengths.

"Franky, a bit to the right! Just a tiny bit!" Nami was guiding the ship over the progressively difficult water swirls, as they were nearing the reefs with every second.

"More speed!"

"Roger!"

"... _scared_, Marimo?"

"... _dream on_, Swirly-brow."

"MORE!" Joyce yelled out.

"Stop overdoing that, like this we will lift from the waves, unable to maneuvre!" Nami shouted upwards when the Sunny stopped sailing through the water, and instead started to glide on the surface like they were on ice.

"This is just _perfect_! Lissy! Show us the way!"

The falcon left Franky's shoulder and carved an elegant arch in the air, guiding them towards the right side.

"So it was on the right! I can see it now!" Nami shouted, pointing at the place where the waves were creating an upwards slope when they crashed into the reefs.

"Okay, everyone, hold on tight, this will be a sharp curve!" Franky warned and dragged the steering towards portside, mimicking the exact way the falcon marked.

"Go for that point in direction, almost paralell with the waves and at the same time almost perpendicular to the current! Can you do that?!"

"Sure! Count on me!"

"_What now_?!" Nami asked in a hurry, uncertain about what to do next.

"Now, leave it to me!" Joyce grinned from ear to ear in his already trademark roguish grin, which sent the shivers up everyone's spine.

"Odd-eye! Go!" Luffy encouraged the pirate, happy in his own element. He _had to_ enjoy _every single pinch_ they went through.

The reefs were approaching with blinding speed. When the Sunny was just at the last few meters from the waves breaking point, Joyce's voice resonated loudly over the sea surface.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the Crazy Airline. Please get a firm hold of your hats and don't forget to put on your seatbelt. In a matter of seconds, we will be taking off."

"... Airline …?" Zoro frowned, confused.

"...taking ... off?" Sanji wasn't doing much better. "The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"... you _can't_ mean ... " Nami suddenly realized what the redhead was probably aiming for. She didn't like the idea in the slightest. Who would have thought that he wanted to do the most insane thing possible in their situation?!

"Huh? Where did he go?" Zoro noticed that Joyce was not standing at the rear mast anymore and is nowehere to be seen.

"That's completely _crazy_! _Insane_! Everyone, grab onto something _and fast_!" Nami warned the whole crew in panic, bracing herself at the railing.

"WHAT?!" seven other shrieks yelled in answer, accompanied with a trademark laughter of their captain.

"Whohoooo!" an excited scream came from somewhere in the sky. "Let's go up together sweetie!"

Joyce must have jumped upwards, given the fact how fast he was now dropping down, literally like a solid red brick, aiming for the back deck.

"... _too late_!" Nami grabbed the railing so hard, her knuckles turned white.

Shockwaves from the thunderous impact shuddered through the whole Sunny, forcing her rear down and the nose up. While being supported with the air stream coming from the rear, and the thin watery mass under the hull, the ship slid up the water slope, aiming right for the sky. Joyce immediately sprang back up into the air, lightening the load so that the rear of the vessel would gain a considerable height.

"Stop shooting!" came his order from the midair and Usopp immediately complied. Though the sniper's yell of dread had to be heard even from the opposite side of the Grand Line.

"Holy shit?!" Zoro's eye almost bulged out, when he suddenly felt the loss of support below his feet.

"... The hell?!" Sanji screamed, searching for his ladies to assure himself that they were safe and sound.

"_Aaaaaah_!" Nami let out a frightened scream when the ship lifted off the water.

"Robin!" Chopper shrieked, plastering himself almost inside the archaeologist, who sprouted numerous arms to help the others stay on board.

Additional impact came from above, aimed at the underside of hull near the front side of Sunny, causing her gyrating around the horizontal axis. Steps, rattling at the underside of the hull, could be heard and made most of the crew wonder what the hell Joyce was doing there.

"This _can't be_ happening!" Nami was shouting in disbelief.

"We are flying to the heaven! I hope they accept skeletons there too! Yohohoho!"

"_Yaaaay_!" Luffy and Joyce were probably the only ones who were clearly enjoying this whole insanity.

Just when the Sunny started to turn over, Nami realized the importance of unfurling the sails. It made sense, because like this they would overturn and crash into the water (or reef, since they were just flying over it) straight on. But still, no order came from the redhead pirate, who, upon sending the Sunny to gyrate, was nowhere to be heard, nor seen again.

Another subsequent impact came down as the ship passed the point of being completely turned upside down, helping Sunny to start to return to her natural position. Nami became even more nervous.

"What is he doing?!" she was thinking in alarm, knowing well that if they did not do anything soon, they were as good as dead. Not being to able to stay still, she decided to step in at the last possible second.

"Sails now!" the voices from Nami and Joyce hit the ears of everyone in surprising unison.

"_Hai, Nami-swaaaaan~_!"

"From _this_ position?!" Zoro spitefully shouted in surprise. Sails were usually dropped down due to gravity, which didn't really work if they were turned upside down.

"Treinta Fleur!"

Chains of hands sprouted from the bottom yard and started to grow downwards to grab the hem of the sails, helping them unfurl. As Zoro and Sanji joined in, both jumping upwards, they successfully set the sail and Sunny considerably slowed down her rotation. Like this, they would be able to land the hull flatly and safely on the water surface.

But a sudden gust of wind caught in the sail and Sunny dangerously changed her position, starting to turn her to the side, still flying in midair.

"Oh no!" Nami breathed out, realizing the danger.

"Crap!" came a frustrated tone from above. "That wasn't exactly in the plan!"

"I'll take care of that!" the navigator yelled out. "Robin! Lend me a hand! I need to get behind the sail!"

"Your way will probably be better, if you are certain it will work!"

"_It will_!"

Without further asking, the archaeologist sprouted another chain of hands, swinging the navigator towards the marked place.

Assembling her Clima tact, Nami aimed the staff right at the sail.

"Tornado tempo!" The blast of wind that came out of her weapon hit the sail under the angle, forcing Sunny back on track. But in the same time, it also nudged the ship considerably forward.

***SPLASH***

The hull crashed into the waves alongside the reef, finally out of the dangerous current. The wood ominously creaked, but it would take much more force to break the hard wood of the Adam's tree.

Like two sacks of potatoes, Zoro and Sanji hit the deck when they came down from their jumps. Nami landed right on top of them.

Finally realizing that they are still safe and sound, everyone started to gather up.

"... is … everyone all right?" Nami asked uncertainly, still greatly shocked as the realization of what they just done finally kicked in. It was really hard to believe that they just made Sunny _backflip_ out of a current like _this_.

"It looks like it." Robin assured her. If she was shocked, she didn't let that out. "Chopper, you can let go now."

Violently shaking his little head, the frightened doctor pressed himself further into Robin's waist.

"Usopp! Are you still alive?!" Franky shouted down, since the frightening scream suddenly stopped at one point.

"... ask me later … I .. don't know …" The sharpshooter crawled from the underbelly, eyes wide, scared half to death. "... is this a heaven …?"

"Such thrilling action! My heart almost burst out from fear, though I don't have a heart! Yohohoho!" Brook chimed, snapping himself out of the shock with his own skull joke.

"Yay, that was fun! Hey! Let's do that again!" Luffy bounced from the figurehead as soon as Robin released her technique.

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" The unison of voices almost knocked him back with their force, creating the same effect like if he had been standing before a huge speaker, turned at the maximum possible volume.

Then, some kind of red and black blur dropped down from the air, completely missing the ship by more than just a few meters.

"Man over board!" Usopp shrieked, jumping to the railing to see what happened. Without a doubt, Joyce came skyrocketing down from whatever he had been doing with Sunny in the air.

A surprisingly loud splash, followed with a geyser of water, burst out of the place where Joyce was supposed to land.

"Whoaaaah!" a warning yell from the hoarse voice cut through the air, as the human body incoordinatedly flew through the air, instead of sinking down into the water.

"Shi …!" Zoro's only eye bulged out as he stood up, when he noticed what was flying towards him, a split of second before Joyce knocked him down.

"Auch! … Ow! … Ugh! … ***CRASH***!" Both swordsmen literally bounced together off the deck a few times as an intangible mess of limbs, crashing right through the doors that lead into the underbelly. Sounds of them rolling down the stairs just crowned the entire scene. But that still wasn't the end of it.

"Thanks for choosing the Crazy Airlines." A hoarse, slightly muffled voice resonated within the Sunny's belly. "We hope you were satisfied with our company, and wish you to have a nice rest of the night. ... and hell, I should really start to work on improving my landings, or I'm going to _kill myself_ one day _for real_!"

„No! _I_ will kill you _myself_ before _you _will ever have the chance to do it _yourself_! And get the hell _off_ me you crazy bastard!"

"_Awww_ ... come on, you don't need to be so _mean_!"

"_Get! Off!_"

"... Greenie meanie. No fun."

" ... _Die._"

* * *

**Notes:**

Ne - kind of "Hey" :)

Minna - everyone

Gainer - backflip executed while running forward (if interested, try to look on Youtube)

* * *

_**Illustration:**_ _planned (kind of comic strip, so it might take a lot of time, before it will get out)_

* * *

_This chapter was pretty interesting to write. At first, I was completely stuck ... but after a few days, it literally burst out of my mind and crashed into the keyboard all at once. Maybe spontaneous writing isn't that bad ... :)_

_Though I'm feeling a bit sorry for SadEcho, since this kind of writing style contains a LOT of grammar mistakes and missclicks I keep missing upon re-reading ... X_x_

_Hope you enjoyed this chapter! (and that your diaphragm doesn't hurt too bad XD)_

_Jitt_

_P.S. Thanks for all the reviews! :) (My muse is sending her thanks too ;))_


	10. 10: In need of the rules

_Editing credits (and my thanks ;)) are going to the _**SadEcho**_ as usual :)_

_**Warnings:**__ Language, tiny bits of adult's suggestions, possibly hilarity? (I had great fun during the writing, so I hope you will have as well :))_

_Special warning:__ After one week without any internet at all and another one spent by not having the time to write at all, my mind went definitely crazy. This chapter contains almost no storyline but a heap of pure crack my mind happen to produce ... _

_I promise, the speed of this story will pick up with the next chapter. Since it's going all too slow, far more than I formerly anticipated. Sorry about that! *bows down in an apologetic gesture*_

* * *

_Certain people are just too easy to target. Other's are just too honest ... and so, some rules are needed to be set up before problems will arise._

* * *

***CRASH***

For a few seconds, Zoro's breath was knocked out of his lungs, as he and Joyce harshly landed inside of the men's quarters. Unfortunately for him, he just served as the redheaded pirate's landing matress, feeling like one of his weights just hit him hard, straight into his stomach. The sole weight of the redhead, who was now lying spread over his stomach with his feet bare feet almost in the Zoro's face, was more than just unbelievable.

"Thanks for choosing the Crazy Airlines." A hoarse, slightly muffled voice was coming from somewhere around Zoro's legs. "We hope you are satisfied with our company, and wish you a pleasant evening. ... and hell, I should_ really_ start to work on improving my landings, or I'm going to _kill_ myself one day _for real_!"

Finally catching his breath, the green-haired swordsman tried to shove the redhead's rear out from the close vicinity of his face, as a vein of pure irritation bulging out on his forehead.

„No! _I_ will kill you _myself_ before _you_ will _ever_ have the chance to do it _yourself_! Zoro roared in irritation. "And get the hell off of me you crazy bastard!" He yelled as he pushed again.

"_Awww _... come on, you don't have to be so _mean_." Joyce lifted his head, looking up through between his own knees, grinning, but not really making an attempt at moving.

"_Get! Off!_"

"... Greenie meanie. No fun." His grin instantly switched into a childish pout, the same one that had set Zoro on fire a few hours before. And if that wasn't enough, the redhead dared to slightly poke Zoro's nose with his big toe.

" _... die,_" the threatening growl emitted from the depth of swordsman's chest, along with a thick, dangerous, aura filling the air. If a mere glare could kill, the redhead would have dropped dead on the spot in that instant.

„Ehehehe … _whops_?" Joyce' face instantly switched into an expression that could have easily been described as an expression of a cat, that just ate a canary. That was a challenge the redhead could simply not pass, since there was a possibility of a lot of fun ahead. At least for him.

Both of their eyes locked together, the tension between them rising to an almost unbearable level, yet none of them moved. But the face of the swordsman, who was sprawled beneath, was sending out more than a clear warning.

_One second._

As if someone shot out a signal, they both moved in the same moment. Hammocks blasted away in all directions and Joyce didn't waste his time. Having an enraged swordsman hot on his heels, he sprinted like a rabbit out of the room.

„What they are ..." Usopp started to wonder, but didn't have a chance to continue his musing. Just barely he managed to jump aside and save his own life, before he was literally run over.

With a speed, quite rivaling the Rocketman in a full throttle, the red and green duo dashed around the deck, almost like untelligible blur.

„Tag game! Yay!" Luffy exclaimed and jumped up and down, rushing to Usopp, smacking the poor sharpshooter hard between the shoulder blades. „Let's play too!"

Poor Usopp wasn't able to voice his protest, due to lack of the air in his lungs that had been so abruptly knocked out of him. Coughing hard, he tried to catch his breath, which turned out to be pretty challenging task when his captain keep smacking him over his already abused back. Just when Luffy was ready to dash, something caught his cheek and stretched it into inhuman levels.

„_You _are _not_ going _anywhere_." Nami's eyebrow was dangerously twitching again. She had not letting the rubber cheek go, so it snapped its owner back to a more natural shape like … well, a rubber band.

„Don't tell me you became even an _bigger_ idiot than two years ago!" The navigator screamed like banshee, loosing her nerves over her captain's shenanigans. Her litany was abruptly interrupted before she can even properly start. Irritated beyond belief, the navigator threw a glare at the perpetrators of the sudden commotion, just to be able to see the next course of events.

Just when Zoro's hand shot forward to grab the collar of his personal provocateur, the redhead suddenly threw himself aside.

***POIIINGGGGG***

The foremast vibrated like a tuning fork when the green-haired swordsman finally peeled his face off the wood. Now decorated with a wide, reddening strip decorating his face from forehead to chin, Zoro's expression was much darker than an average demon would ever be able to bear. Digging his glare hard into the snickering redhead, who was standing at the opposite side of the mast, the latter quickly caught up and dashed again, this time towards Franky's impressive body frame in attempt to find a cover behind the cyborg.

Everyone's eyes were set on the scene unfolding before them with disbelieving expressions. Nami frowned, even forgetting to scold Luffy for a second despite still holding onto his cheek up. Her attention snapped back to Luffy, giving the captain a ridiculously wide-eyed expression.

„Ehehehe …" Joyce rubbed sheepishly at his head, messing the wild red hair up even more in the process, as he peeked from his temporary cover, „Guess I'm ... well ... how was that word ... ehm ... _sorry? Maybe_?" he tried, already knowing, it was futile. But he did it anyway.

„No, you are _not_." Slowly, like predator, who has his prey right before his eyes to ensure it won't escape, the swordsman started to pace towards the peeking obnoxity. It was clear from his expression that Joyce was as good as dead at this point. „But don't worry … I _will _make you feel _really sorry_ ..."

„Z-Zoro-bro?" Franky asked cautiously, uncertain at what is going to happen. At least, what is expected from him to do, in this kind of dire situation. „Jo-san, can you try and find cover anywhere else? Please?" he tried to ask, hoping that he would be left out of this ridiculous situation, or at least able to get out of it unscathed.

„I would like to but well ..." the redhead sweat-dropped, observing, how the swordsman was closing the distance, „... he's _really_ scary, and you are _so _big and look _so_ dependable …"

Two big mismatched puppy-like eyes looked at the cyborg. At first Franky was a little startled by the change of character, but he quickly regained his composure, trying not to blush at the compliment.

„... and drop that crap behind my name, if you would be so _kind_." The puppy look disappeared in an instant, switching into the sour one, bringing the cyborg harshly back down to the reality.

„Huh?" Franky looked down in puzzlement. Joyce's word choice end of that sentence, and sudden change of tone, left the cyborg dumbfounded.

„That _-san_ crap. Thanks in advance."

Before Franky managed to answer, his attention was brought from the hiding redhead back to the green-haired danger before him.

An impossible predatory grin cracked on Zoro's face, as he took another step forward.

„Maybe I really overdid it a bit?" the redhead mused, sticking his pointer finger between his lips in genuine wonder. His observation of the green-haired man was temporarily interrupted as he occupied himself with his thoughts, which only succeeded in adding another dose of oil to the fire. Just in case there wasn't enough fuel present already.

„_A bit_?" Nami cocked up an eyebrow in disbelief. 'Was that_ question_ for real? Forget that.' she mentally slapped herself, 'Was that _person_ for real?'

Flapping of wings tore Nami's eyes from the scene before her, just to realize Lissy had landed on her shoulder, chirping something. It looked like the falcon was clearly siding with her in this matter.

„Hopeless idiot." Chopper suddenly let out.

„Uh? Chopper?" Nami questioned in confusion. Sudden boldness in a situation like this was unexpected from the little doctor.

„She said it." The doctor pointed absently at Lissy, who nodded. „It's true … moreover when there's no cure for idiocy yet … I should really speed up my research." he added with a large sweat drop beading near his forehead.

„Ehehee … I'm screwed, am I not?" Joyce scratched at his head, as if thinking, in puzzlement, while grinning at the same time.

„... such accuracy … how is he doing that?" Sanji smirked and shook his head in wonder, exhaling a puff of cigarette smoke. Apparently his current amusement upon teasing the poor swordsman like this made him forget about his own antipathy towards their annoying, red-headed passenger. It was kind of interesting to watch, how Joyce's acts are able to turn the sides so quickly with such ease. What was actual a second before already changed into something different the next one.

„Don't tell me you forget already, Sanji?" Usopp sweat-dropped at the recent memories. For him, it would be something he would have a hard time forgetting. If he ever manages to get it out of his mind in the first place.

„Like I _ever_ could! That friggin' sea urchin is gonna pay for everything he dared cause up until now!" And so, the old pissed off Sanji was back on track, burning with pure passion and anger.

„Then I would advise you to proceed, before Zoro-san will turn our guest into minced meat," Robin offered with her share of trademark macabre humor, which highly contrasts with her ever-present faint smile.

„_R-robin_ ..." Usopp shot the archaeologist a sweat dropping glare. If he ever get used to this, it will be like a miracle. It was at times like these, that his crewmembers were scarier than even the toughest enemy.

„_Bet. on. it,_" the swordsman growled to confirm Joyce's statement, his eyes drilling holes into the peeking redhead, as he unsheathed one of his blades.

„Whoops ... time to run."

„Go Zoro!" Luffy cheered, albeit a bit muffled given his uncomfortable position in Nami's grasp, just as his swordsman darted forward. Unfortunately, his cheer also dragged the navigator's attention back at him, instantly reminding her why she had caught her captain in the first place.

„H-hey! Zoro-bro! Be careful!" Franky yelped and flinched when the sharp blade missed his rear by a mere inches, cutting through the air as Joyce successfully avoided the blow and hid at the opposite side of the cyborg. Instantly, the poor shipwright found himself locked in the middle of a very tight circle created by the two blurs that was Zoro chasing after Joyce.

„Come here you red-headed asshole! I'll slice you up for good!" Both participants stopped instantly on their respective spots, glaring at each other, trying to anticipate each other's further swordsman roared from one side, trying to cut off the redhead's path, while Joyce was peeking at him from the opposite, switching sides and feigning his movements in attempt to confuse the swordsman with Franky in the middle as some kind of obstacle.

„That's not going to convince me to come closer!" The redhead peeked from behind Franky again, ducking back, when the blade threatened to split his head cleanly into two.

„Just wait till I catch you!" Zoro dashed again and so did Joyce.

„Good luck!"

Another couple of rounds were made around the poor cyborg, who really started to doubt that his speedos would survive the sudden assault. Zoro's blade had been missing them far too close for his personal taste, but as he was now, there was no way out of this pinch. Just as his mind offered him the reassurance of how lucky he was, to be now plated with steel _everywhere_, another thought ruined his relief when he remembered Zoro was able to cut through steel like butter. Being the man he was, Franky started to feel cold sweat forming on his forehead at that sudden realization, and the closeness of a sharp edge being swung around his waist made him even more uncomfortable.

„You stupid rubber head! Care to explain what you were thinking?!" Nami screamed from a very close distance right into Luffy's ear, temporarily ignoring the insanity happening on board. „Entrusting our Sunny into the hands of a complete stranger, who wanted to kill us in the first place?! Did you go _completely_ nuts these past two years?!"

„But! It was fun!" Luffy tried to protest, as his navigator was angrily tugging at his cheek, successfully making his talking harder than usual.

„My own words!" Cheerful laughter came from somewhere around Franky, without a doubt from Joyce's mouth. „Otherwise I wouldn't even bother myself with doing something like that!"

„See! Odd-eye is good!" Luffy instantly sided with their passenger in this matter, trying to justify his own actions and decisions.

„By the way, if I wanted to kill you so badly, as you are saying, why are you still alive in the first place?!" the redhead threw the question out while successfully avoiding another attempt of Zoro's catching, much to the swordsman's ire.

„'Cause you are outnumbered and your boat is crushed!" Nami threw back, successfully mounting the steam. If the redhead's goal was to break the record of setting every strawhat member into the fire withing shortest time possible, he was more than successful. Now with Nami, it was the third hit of the bull's eye in a row.

„You are mixing apples with pears, that has nothing to do with it." Joyce casually swept her argument out of the table like nothing. "And it's a ship! Not some friggin' boat, dammit!" he passionately added from the outskirt of the blurred circle.

„He's really something, isn't he?" Robin chuckled. This exchange was amusing, at least for the dark-haired woman. Still, she couldn't deny, that the foreign pirate probably had a point. Up until now, their passenger wasn't very discreet about his intentions, even if they sounded more than just plain crazy. And given how crafty he was while escaping what should have been certain death from Zoro's hands, he probably had to have some trump cards up his sleeves to back those words up.

„How joyous to observe such energy of youth ..." Brook sighed in a bliss, temporarily being lost in his own memories. One of many things he loved about his new crew was their liveliness. Where else could you find such a crew, overflowing with life and joy? In a world, where the most pirates were merciless and bloodthirsty, it was like a miracle for him to meet Luffy, who straightforwardly denied the common sense in all possible and sometimes even impossible ways.

„When will you finally start to use your head for some other purpose than just eating?! Not everyone out there is a friend! This stupidity of yours will be our _doom _one day! Are you _at least_ aware of _that_?!"" Nami snapped back at pouting Luffy, who was still hanging down from her hand, ignoring the tagging duo again. Luffy was her first priority to beat back into line. As a captain they were depending on his insight, but there were certain boundaries that should never been crossed. Inviting a complete strangers from the waters of the New World on board, and treating them as a friends given the course of the previous events, was definitely one of them.

Slightly bending the rules of his crazy game, the redhead slipped out of Zoro's reach by crawling between Franky's knees to the opposite side of the cyborg's body, much to the shipwright's dread over his lower regions.

„You little …..!" Zoro made a half circle to get at the same side as well, but Joyce was nowhere to be found. At least on the deck.

„Hey! What are you doing?!" Franky yelped in surprise, trying to catch the redhead, who suddenly appeared behind his neck. Such a heavy weight dancing across his steel shoulders wasn't really pleasurable, but he was lucky to be so sturdy. Otherwise, it would have crushed him by now.

„Get down! _Now_!" The swordsman was pointing resolutely to the deck in an attempt to emphasize his point and intention. It was similar to a parent, trying to convince his misbehaving child to "get the hell down from that friggin' tree".

„Why should I? Looking at you, nothing nice awaits me down there." Joyce mused from above, trying to dodge Franky's huge arms, as the poor cyborg tried to get rid of him.

„_Don't _make me come up there!"

„Still, you can_ try it_."

„Damn, _you_ …!" Zoro sheathed his sword and hoisted himself up to Franky's shoulders too.

„Enough you two!" Franky's nerves finally snapped, just by the sheer luck he managed to grab both participants by their coat's collars in his huge hands like two kittens. Now, he was holding them with a considerable gap between both swords wielders to ensure that Zoro would not reach at his counterpart. Otherwise it surely would have end in a massacre.

„Thanks Franky, that's it. Hold them firm." The navigator appreciated the help in calming the situation down before it slipped out of hand. „I wanted to ask our _guest_ a few questions, preferably before Zoro manages to rip him into shreds. He can do that any time afterwards," she informed the redhead casually. Nami turned back towards Luffy, ready to continue to chew him out like a piece of rubber he undoubtedly was. „So?! What are you going to do now?! What you would had been doing, if he would destroyed the Sunny and killed all of us?!"

„What makes you think I'll be in the mood for answering?" Joyce supported his head with his palm, wondering about the certainty of the mikan-head. The sounds coming from the other huge arm snapped his attention back to his original target. Maybe the word „victim" would be more precise at this point.

„Franky! The hell are you doing?! Let me _down_! _Now_!" Zoro tried to wiggle out of the iron grasp, but without too much success, sputtering saliva into all directions, trying to get his hands at Joyce at all costs. Then, he spotted a peculiar expression, etched into redhead's features and his eyebrows almost connected themselves in a deep frown.

„_What!_" he barked out, enhancing his color into a rich shade of red.

"Just wondering whether you are yet ripe or not," Joyce curiously mused, tapping his index finger over his own lips, pointing out a certain hilarious similarity. He threw a conspiring look towards the surprised cook. "Surely, you had to notice as well, being a cook, right, Blondie?" The redhead accompanied his question with a playful, one-eyed wink.

That gesture surprisingly didn't sent thousand of chills up to Sanji's spine, as he would have expected after spending two years on the island full of okamas, which quite surprised him in a confusing way. But before he managed to throw back an angry answer or occupy himself with thinking about the possible cause of his lack of reaction, the sudden realization about what the redhead was referring to hit his brain hard.

Sanji's jaw loosened, threatening his cigarette with falling out of his lips, before he boomed into salves of an uncontrollable laughing fit. Hilarious similarity didn't escaped the sharp, odd eyes. How it was able to escape Sanji, of all people, who spent quite a considerable amount of time with Zoro aboard of the same ship and being a cook at the same time, was a mystery. Maybe it happened because he grew so accustomed to his first made-up insult, Marimo, that he didn't consider anything else at all.

"Gyahahahahahahaaaaa!" The cook was banging his slender, delicate fist into the railing, being crouched over, in attempt not to piss himself due to sudden attack at his diaphragm. "Holy fucking _shit! ..._ _Marimo_!" he brayed uncontrollably, trying to catch his breath. Not aware in the slightest of the weird looks from his crewmates, he started to wipe away the tears that appeared in his visible eye and tried to calm himself down.

Unfortunately, one look at the swordsman sent him into another laughing fit, much to Zoro's growing anger and confusion.

"Looks like our cook is having a really good time," the archaeologist commented with a chuckle. It was quite a rare sight to see Sanji being so ultimately crippled.

"Did he lose all his gears completely?" Nami wondered with a twitching eye, forgetting about the Luffy for a while again.

"S-sanji?" Chopper warily dared to ask, reminding himself how dangerous a deranged person could be. In his medical mind, the only explanation for the sudden laughter of this scale could be nothing less than a sudden strike of pure madness. "Are you all right?"

"Guess you all didn't notice until now," Joyce snickered, calling out the entire crew. "That's quite surprising. He really looks like ... well ... just look at him ..." snickering again, he gestured towards the confused swordsman.

"He's right!" Luffy suddenly started to laugh in his own way, supporting the redhead' result of observation. Now, it was clear to him, unlike the others. How could he miss something like that?! "Zoro really looks like a ... !"

"_Tomato!_" Sanji managed to squeeze out between the attempts to catch his breath, stop laughing, and stop himself from pissing. "You fucking Marimo, you _really_ look like some frigging shitty _tomato_! Nicely ripe, just ready to be _harvested_!"

Booms of laughter, giggling and face palms overcame the rest of the crew when they finally caught on. Thanks to Zoro's short, spiky green hair and green coat, most of everything the poor swordsman's face resembled a juicy, ripe tomato, hanging down from a green stolon. Literally.

Through Joyce's face flashed satisfaction and enjoyment when the crew started to laugh so hard. It wasn't the usual childish smile, this was a bit more mature. One that Robin didn't miss. It looked like the pirate was pleased by the fact that everyone around was smiling and laughing, basically having a great fun. Well ... almost everyone.

On the contrary, Chopper would never have guessed a human's face could take on such a dark shade of red and still survive the blood pressure it required. But well, it was Zoro who performed this task. So in the end it didn't surprise the doctor that much, being used to the ridiculous sturdiness of the green-haired man. Someone, who seemed to have more than five litres of blood within his body, had to have high-pressure resistant veins able to withstand that crazy amount. Ready to start yelling at the trembling cook and laughing crew, Zoro's angry fit was stopped before he could even start.

„You really riped!" Joyce's eyes lit up with pure childish excitement, upon that change and realization, "... How _cuteeee~_!" An adoring chime sounded, despite the raspy voice, which only crowned the entire situation with pure insanity, pushing the meaning of that word into a completely different, much higher level, again.

It lasted a second, during which Zoro's jaw loosened, in attempt to grasp what he just heard. 'Cute? Did that …' he found himself struggling to properly name the entity hanging before him just out of his reach, '... just called him "cute"?! And a _tomato_ on top of that?! Just _when _did he start to _side_ with that idiotic love cook?! Of _all __the__ possible_ people?! … _the hell is happening __here_?!'

Zoro had the miraculously survived Mihawk's sudden laughter two years ago, which had really been like the foreboding of an apocalypse that would be cast over this poor world. The ever stoic swordmaster had laughed so hard, it _had to_ be some sign of incoming disaster. But never would he have thought something like this could really be happening!

Upon remembering his former teacher, whom he once vowed to kill, his mind flashed some of Mihawk's words again.

"_... beware of everything, that happens to have a red hair, if you don't intent to aim for a constant headache for the rest of your life._"

'It had to be just a coincidence.' Zoro tried inwardly to assure himself, 'No way the first redhead I happened to meet would be so obnoxiously annoying as this rare example!'

Snapping back to reality from his inner thinking, the swordsman's mental gears clicked together in understanding, successfully blowing his anger into full glory.

„_Dammit_! I'm _not _some friggin' _tomato_, and I _dare __you_ to try to call me cute _ever again!" _Zoro roared, tossing and twisting himself but without too much success, "Get me down so I can kill him! I will _kill both_ of them! _Right now! Frrranky_!" he sputtered into all directions.

„Okay, I got it. Sure you aren't." Joyce grinned from ear to ear in apparent amusement not really meaning his own words seriously. He was greatly enjoying the situation as it was, until Luffy's protesting voice reached over the sounds of anger erupting out of the restricted green-haired man.

"But Odd-eye is a friend!" the captain protested, stubbornly defending his opinion before the enraged navigator, who started to pull his cheek again.

"And what makes you think that?! He even tried to drown you, you idiot!" Nami averted her eyes from unusual scene and screamed. "People, who are trying to harm you are not a friends for goodness sake!"

She was the only one who had not laughed, except a light chuckle that had made its way through her lips at the very beginning. The hilarity of the revelation was just too insane, but she would be a hypocrite not to admit that on the inside she had been having as much fun as the rest of the crew. But, straightening her captain out required a straight face. You just can't lecture a person while grinning like an idiot. That's not how it works.

"He saved me!" Luffy blurted out in innocent bluntness.

"_WHAT?!_" It wasn't only Nami's voice that squeaked in surprise, successfully cutting off the laughing, and replacing it with a pure confusion.

The shocked silence, that spread over the deck was interrupted only by a loud smack of face palm, performed by the redhead. "... _Brilliant_. _When shitting already, why __not__to __pile__it on__._" he muttered quietly in a very annoyed and sarcastic tone.

"He saved me from the water! So he's a friend!" Luffy repeated and grinned from ear to ear, at least in the extent, that was allowed to him by sudden slip of Nami's grasp. "Ne? Odd-eye?" His big eyes tried to seek for the support from the person in question.

"... finished already?" Joyce's sour and very annoyed tone precisely matched his expression, as he folded his arms before his chest over the sudden revelation. Still hanging down by the collar from Franky's fist, given his newest posture, it was quite a sight. "Satisfied with the outcome?" the pirate gestured in a sarcastic, wide gesture towards the shocked, dumbfounded crew, that stared at their captain. Their glares switching from Joyce and then back at Luffy. It was obvious, that whatever the rubber man wanted, it was nowhere to be found.

"Huh?" the rubber man tilted his head to the side, not getting the weird reaction of his savior. Shouldn't he be pleased by his revelation? Besides, it was true!

***SMACK* **Nami's fist connected with Luffy's head again and instantly grabbed him by his ear.

"Ow ow ow!" Luffy protested against his ear's abuse, but nothing could soften the navigator's heart. The rubber powers of his were rendered unusable in his current situation. How was Nami able to hurt his spirit. He always wondered if he would ever bother with actually thinking over something other than what would be served for dinner.

"Why didn't you tell us _sooner_?!" the navigator screamed. Many things could have been be different if they knew this fact in the first place. Especially the hostile treatment they inadvertedly gave to their unexpected passenger. Great. Thanks to Luffy's obliviousness, they now looked like a bunch of assholes, who were repaying kindness with hostility. Could the situation became even worse at this point?

"Cuz there was _no reason_ to bring it up _at all,_" Joyce coldly growled out in a pure annoyance, digging his sharp, odd glare right into a confused Luffy.

This unexpected twist of a situation was everything but up to his liking, if his sudden and violent mood swing was any indicator. "Now, the fun is spoiled. Thank you _very much_, idiot," he added almost venomously, deftly undoing the clasp on his belt with a metallic click and caught it on his ankle before it could crash into the deck. Hooking his index finger behind the second layer of his green sash, the redhead loosened the confinement of red fabric, which allowed him to slip out of his yukata like a snake without dropping his swords down or unfolding the sash. Kicking the belt back into the air, he hoisted it up to his shoulder and with a harsh tug, yankeding his red coat out of Franky's slightly lessened grasp, while swiftly turning on his heel. "There just _ha__s__ to_ be some kind of idiot _every fucking time_ to spoil everything. Damn them all," he muttered angrily for himself, stomping towards the rear deck.

Behind his back, the strawhats exchanged confused looks, with the only exception being Robin, who, like always, seemed to know more, than she let out.

For the dark-haired archaeologist, reading the other's personalities was easy most of the time. Since her survival depended on it for many years, she was an experienced reader of others. Despite what could be spotted on the first look, there was more things under this first layer, and her curiosity started to act. What exactly was going through Joyce's mind? Why is he acting like that? What made him be this way ... ? Too many questions at once. But she knew how to wait. And that the waiting could bring up the sweetest results.

When Joyce's stomping suddenly stopped, their heard the sound of waves splashing, causing the looks of everyone to be dragged back to him. Joyce was staring somewhere into the darkness, in the direction where the reef was positioned. A brief flash of excitement ran through his face, hiting that there was some kind of idea forming inside his mind before that expression disappeared like smoke in the wind.

"So, now that it has turned to this, let's clear a few important facts before it causes some unwanted misunderstanding." He turned back towards the crew with a firm expression, hinting his hidden, still somewhat present, irritation.

"You, Chibi." The odd-eyed glare dug deep into Chopper, who stepped back a few steps to increase the space. His small back hit something thin and hard, and upon that he turned around to face the object, being Brook's shin and hid behind the musician in the opposite way. "I would _seriously_ advice you to _stop_ butting into my fights, if you don't want to be _hurt_. That goes for everyone else as well." His sharp glare slid over every strawhat on board with unexpected hardness. It was quite shocking to see the such the once cheerful person, being suddenly so cold and firm. "I _don't like _it and I _will not tolerate_ it. Rule number one."

The redhead made a brief pause, successfully creating the tension within the air.

"As for the rule number two, I'm _not_ your friend. Dunno, where you picked up that nonsense, but you better forget it _right now_, or you _will_ regret it later for sure. Save that for someone else, I'm not interested," he announced with a serious undertone. The nervousness had hit most of the weaker members of the strawhats, and Chopper again, fought the urge to run. That dangerous feeling assaulted his instincts again, making the redhead's statement even more crushing.

Turning towards the railing, marking this business as already solved, the pirate put his belt over the top edge near his sailor's sack, he casually slipped into the wide sleeves of his coat, leaving it wide open like a cape. As he climbed on the top of the railing, the weird pressure in the air instantly disappeared like the snap of fingers. Squatting, the redhead lightly slid his palms over the outer sides of his thighs and calves with a faraway expression.

'It's still within the safe limit, so it should be fine. I'm certain, that I will probably myself with heaps of names later ...' he inwardly cringed, checking his own state, ' ... but I live only once after might not be another chance to take a look.' he shrugged his mind train effortlessly off.

"Lissy?" Joyce casually asked over the shoulder, calling up his animal companion, who lifted her head up in an alarm. Surely, he couldn't think about …

"Keep an eye on a things here, please. If something happens, do as usual. It won't take long."

Yep. He _couldn't_.

He already _did_.

Alarmed whistling intertwined with angry high-pitched tones, and panicked waving of wings, cut the air apart with its urgency, causing Chopper to blush again. Most probably, the falcon didn't bother herself with modesty language. It made the doctor wonder if it was something she acquired from Joyce, since the redhead's speech was pretty colorful one as well.

"Something tells me, I don't want to know what you just said." Joyce turned away with a puzzled expression. "At a situations like these, twice as much. Well, never mind … thanks anyway. I'm counting on you!"

"Hey! Where the hell you think you are going?!" Zoro was the first one to recover from the sudden change, finally slipping his collar out of Franky's grasp.

"Wait! I'm not done yet! We are grateful that you saved Luffy, but you still have _a lot_ to explain here!" Nami screamed at the pirate, who tossed her a confused glare over the shoulder. Being as hyped up as she was, it was hard to express the gratitude in a more proper way.

"Explanation?" he asked curiously, before setting up a polite smile, closing his odd-eyes. "Then, I'm afraid it will need to wait for later. Right now, I'm pretty busy as you might see, so sorry to disappoint your expectation, Miss."

"You are _not _going _anywhere_!"

"I wonder about that. Besides it's your curiosity. It will not run anywhere, not without you, Miss." Joyce winked at Nami and turned his head back into the previous direction. "And when we are at it, be so kind and stick your gratitude ... you know where to. With that, I'm off then," he announced casually. In that casual kind of tone, made up especially on empty commenting of the weather.

"Wait!" Zoro rushed to catch the redhead, but it was too late. Like a suddenly loosened spring, Joyce shot out of the railing, disappearing into the darkness towards the faintly illuminated reef. Only the violent flapping of the edges of his tattered garment hinted the curve he was following during his jump.

"The hell is with him?" Sanji wondered, frowning, as he light up another cigarette. The sudden changes of mood, the scolding which they just earned, and the weird actions that resulted into ridiculous game of tag around Franky… it didn't make the slightest sense. Most of all, he felt bothered and confused by his own reaction, or precisely, lack of it. A man had _winked_ at him in a such way , and he _had not_ reacted in the slightest?! Oh shit, it had to be far,_ far_ _worse_ than he thought!

"Don't take it too personally. All the time it's like this. She said." Chopper translated Lissy's sighing chirping. The falcon had obviously undergone a variety of rich experiences with her companion, but it clearly didn't put her little heart at ease.

"Maybe ..." Robin started to muse, but her eyes caught the two outstretched hands of her captain. Nami, instantly followed where the dark-haired woman had been looking, just to realize what was going on, twisting her expression into pure dread.

"Gomu Gomu noooo …"

"Luffy … NO! _Stay __here_!" she shrieked, but it was too late.

"... Rockeeeeet!"

With that, followed by the sound of a snapping rubber, the captain propelled himself into the air to follow Joyce in his own version of the same manner as the mentioned pirate. Nine facepalms smacked through the air when even Lissy joined the wave.

"… this just _ha__s__ to_ be a nightmare!" Nami sobbed through her palm over such concentrated idiocy. As if she hadn't said how dangerous these reefs are! Of course, the first thing their captain had to do was investigate. Maybe it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for their … _nemesis_, who managed to swept him along in the wave of his own curiosity and excitement. _Just_ when Luffy seemed to _finally forget_ about his initial idea to go on the adventure into the Hollow sea. What kind of calamity was this? Was it fate, or God himself, that seemed to make fun out of them in such a ridiculous manner? Maybe she didn't really want to know the answer. It was enough as it was right now.

An ironic chirp from her shoulder brought her back from the depths of her mind.

"Welcome to J's reality … she said." Chopper sighed, gesturing towards the falcon, who heavily nodded in agreement while throwing a criticizing glare in the direction where Joyce had disappeared, also from where a pair of loud crashes reached their ears.

Without a doubt, this ride had really started to turn itself into one hell of an insane dose of fun. And they will be lucky, if that tiny amount of sanity usually, though kind of surprisingly present there, will not decide to pack her luggages and definitely leave this ship for real.

* * *

_**Illustration:**__ ... riping Zoro sounds sooo exciting! Why no one spotted that similarity yet? XD I wonder ... well, when I will steal some time, I'll try to draw him :)_

* * *

_Ugh, so the chapter is finally out. As I wrote at the beginning, I'm terribly sorry, it took too long to publish it ... handling eleven different characters at once without confusing the reader too much and without leaving someone out is quite a challenge I called upon myself! But I'm not going to give up XD_

_ At the same time, I'm afraid the updates will be less frequent than "the usual" one chapter per week, because my time is pretty limited. :( Work is a terrible thing ... yet very pleasant. Depends on point of view._

_Hah, but stop babbling, Jitt!_

_Thanks a lot to all of you, who are still staying with me :) I'm really glad and happy for your support, which gives me the energy to write this story further :)_

_I know, that I'm throwing a lot of things and hints around and that it's probably more than just confusing, but everything will be explained at the right time. Just to let you know, this story is more like a prologue to something, that will follow in the future. I have a lot of things planned out, just not enough time to write them all down at once. :X_

_Chapter 11 is on the way, but as everything, it needs its time to fully ripe to be as tasty as possible ;)_

_Thanks a lot!_

_Jitt_


	11. Author's note

_Hello all :)_

_I'm really terribly sorry for not updating this story for so long. I had some serious problems with laptop, that successfully obstructed me from writing anything at all and when you count in also a few of trips I participated in, there was really no time to for almost anything at all :X_

_But now, it finally looks my laptop is willing to work with me again so I'll jump head first right into continuing the writing of the chapter 11. I have already something written down, but it needs some filling and adjustments, before I'll be willing to let it out :)_

_Hope you are not too angry at me. I'm really sorry for the delay._

_Greetings_

_Jitt_


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